Personal Demons
by Haunting Your Kids
Summary: After a demon infestation in Amity Park, acclaimed demon exterminator Dante is hired to take care of it, as well as an added bonus for eliminating a certain ghost boy.
1. The Summoning

Well, here we go, start of a new story. I've been working on the plot since SotS, and I think I finally have it down. Keep in mind, as I said in DYS, I'm pretty much making my fics a continuous string from D-Stablized, as I wasn't all too happy with Phantom Planet. Anyway, enjoy this relatively short chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

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Personal Demons

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Chapter 1: The Summoning

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A musky scent filled the air of the formerly empty warehouse. The room was occupied by nine people, their identities hidden by their hooded robes. The figures had been gathered around an emerald shaped emblem drawn onto the floor, candles lit around its eight corners. In the center of the emblem lied an ancient-looking mirror, at least a meter long and perhaps mountable on a wall. The looking glass was surrounded by diamonds drawn onto the ground, two corners of each aligned to point to the center on a side of the mirror and emerald-shaped emblem. 

The head figure looked around at his hooded companions and asked them, "Are we ready to begin?" All eight of them nodded. By a wave of the head's hand, his eight followers began chanting in tounges.

As they chanted, the drawn emblem began to light up. The emblem grew brighter as the chanting grew louder. The chanting continued to amplify until the mirror released a blinding flash, filling the entire warehouse with light for a brief moment. As the light subsided, the mirror did not cast a reflection of the roof above it. It showed only black until a red eye opened up.

"At last," the mirror called in a deep, grusome voice, "I am exiled no longer! I have returned to this dimension to once again overthrow it!"

"It is excelent to be in your presence once again, Lord Grusunder," one of the figures said, bowing to the mirror as the other figures did the same. The head figure, however, stood idly by.

"Yes, but I am not quite free," Grusunder said. "I can only be freed by the one who imprisoned me in my own mirror. The traitor, Sparda!" The hooded figures hissed in pure hatred of the name spoken to them. "Bring me Sparda so that I may be freed to destroy him, once and for all!"

"But my lord," a figure began to say, "Sparda has been dead for years. We cannot possibly bring him to you."

"WHAT?!?" Grusunder shouted, his mighty voice causing those who followed him to flinch. "If you cannot bring me the blood of Sparda to set me free, you should have never brought me back to this realm to begin with!"

"But my lord," another figure spoke out, "Sparda may be dead, but there is word of a legacy. Sparda's blood still exists, but through his son's veins."

"Sparda has a son?" Grusunder said, his voice showing interest. "Then there is hope for me yet. Bring me this son of Sparda, so that I may be free again! GO NOW!"

And with that, the eight figures surrounding the emblem threw off their robes, revealing their demonic figures beneath. With their wings, the demons took flight through the roof of the warehouse, bringing destruction the foundation's cieling. The head figure was all that remained. Grusunder took quick attention to him.

"You do not take flight," Grusunder pointed out. "I sense you are not one of my minions."

"You sensed correct," the head answered. "I am simply a mortal being who is simply responsable for uniting your minions simply to free you. Or at least half-free you. I feel you may owe me after you are completely freed."

"Consider it done," Grusunder said. "Can I have the name of the man who has plotted my return?"

The head figure, befure answering walked up to the mirror to speak to Grusunder face to... eye. He lifted his hood to reveal his identity. He was an older man with piercing blue eyes, long silver hair tied into a ponytail, and a short beard on his chin. "My name is Vlad Masters."

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Bum, bum, buuuuum! Originally, I didn't want to reveal Vlad until later, but I think it'll work out just as good if I reveal him now. Besides, he has a motive now. Please leave a review. 


	2. A New Enemy

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

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Personal Demons

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Chapter 2: A New Enemy

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Another Sunday afternoon in Amity Park. Fourteen-year-old middle schooler Danny Fenton was walking with his best friend, Tucker Foley, conversing about the latest video game and its most difficult level. "So I can't get into the slaughterhouse until I beat that M-1 Annihilator," Danny said, "and they weren't kidding when they called that thing 'Annihilator.'"

"You do know that you gotta climb up the balcony and cut the electric cables to short circuit it, right?" Tucker suggested. "Just because the knife is the first weapon you get doesn't mean it's the most useless."

"You've known this how long?" Danny asked.

"About a week or so," Tucker answered. "Why would you still be playing the campaign mode, anyway?"

As the two friends were walking through the street, they passed up an old theatre surrounded by various citizens of Amity Park holding picket signs to prevent its destruction. A few days ago, the mayor of the city, Vlad Masters, announced its demolition to make room for a place for people to buy overpriced coffee (as if there weren't enough). Several people spoke against it and decided to take action. The youngest amongst them was Samantha "Sam" Manson, who was also another one of Danny's friends.

"Hey, Sam," Danny casually greeted.

"Hey, Danny," Sam greeted in the same way. With that, they parted ways.

Tucker, not sure of what was happening, had to ask, "So that's it? No trying to talk her out of it or anything?"

"C'mon, Tuck, it's Sam," Danny explained. "Whatever we say to snap her out of it, she'll go off with that whole 'opression from the man' this and 'it's a national landmark' that. Besides, whatever's bad for Vlad's reputation is no skin off my neck."

Danny had never seen eye-to-eye with the mayor. Their rivalry goes back as far as when they first met, when Danny first learned that Vlad, like himself, was half-ghost. Involved in an accident simular to his own, Vlad blames Danny's father, Jack, to this day for activating a Ghost Portal prototype that gave him ecto-acne which ruined his social life and what little chance he had with Jack's future wife, Maddie, whom he is still infatuated with. Since learning how to use his powers, Vlad used them, as the mysterious Vlad Plasmius, to overshadow big businessmen to sell to him to gain even more power. He had even used this overshadowing power, as well as a perfected division ability, to overshadow the voters of Amity Park to elect him mayor of the city. Since then, Vlad had been using his mayoral power to belittle Danny's reputation as the town's ghostly hero, with, so far, minimal results.

As Danny and Tucker continued on, one of the protesters called out, "What's that?!" Danny and Tucker turned around to see one protester pointing up to the roof of an adjacent building. The teens looked that way to see an winged, dark orange creature looking down upon the protesters. It opened it's mouth to show its gnarled fangs and let loose a mighty, shriekish roar.

"You do what you gotta do, bud," Tucker said, handing Danny a Fenton Thermos.

"That, I will," Danny responded, taking the thermos and running off to find a place to change.

Of the protesters shaking in fear at the sight of this strange monster, Sam stepped out and called out, "Stand your ground, team! Nothing shall break our bond with this piece of history!"

"Forget it, man!" One protester said. "I'm outta here!" The protester ran away screaming, as the rest went and did the same.

Sam gave a frustrated sigh and remarked, "Fight all forms of _human_ oppression, but _one_ paranormal being shows up and you all go running."

The strage creature swooped down at at Sam, its knife-like fingers pointed forward to stab anything in its path like a shish kabob. Sam tried defending herself using her picket sign as an impractical shield. Before the monster could plunge its claws into Sam, it got blasted by a ghost ray from Danny's ghostly alter ego, Danny Phantom. Sam lowered her sign to see her knight in shining armor, or in this case, a faintly glowing jumpsuit, take off before she could give a proper thanks.

The creature lay on the road recovering from the blast it took as Danny touched ground and readied the thermos. "You sure are ugly," Danny taunted. "Perhaps you'll meet someone like you in the Ghost Zone!" Danny activated the thermos at the creature to capture it with intent of sending back to the Ghost Zone. The thermos fired a white beam at the creature... and nothing happened. The beam stuck on the creature like a normal beam of light would. Danny just didn't get it. He was so lost in it, he didn't realize the creature getting up to its feet again. By the time he realized, it had already come in for the kill. It smacked at Danny's body with its crude claws with its backhand, sending Danny flying a few yards back and leaving his body badly cut.

As Danny laid on the ground holding his body, the creature flew up to him. It didn't attack again, however. It olny hissed to Danny, "The age of Grusunder is nigh." And with that, it retreated to the sky.

After the creature was surely gone, Sam and Tucker came running up to Danny to check on him. "Are you okay?" Sam first asked.

"It's just a scratch," Danny said, showing the grusome results of the creature's slash, making his friends a little uneasy.

"If that's just a scratch," Tucker said, "I'd hate to see a papercut."

"That thing wasn't a ghost," Danny suddenly said.

"Took you that long to figure out?" Sam intervened.

"You knew?" Danny and Tucker both said in puzzlement.

"Yeah," Sam said, as if the statement was obvious. "That was a demon." Before either boy could get a word out, Sam quickly said, "I'm a goth. I follow these things."

"Do you know anything about someone named 'Grusunder?'" Danny asked Sam.

"Why? Was that him?" Tucker added in.

"Couldn't have been," Sam said. "If it was, it would've killed Danny outright. It had to've been a lesser demon. A minion, so to say." Danny and Tucker continued to gawk at Sam's vast knowledge of demonology. "What? A girl can't learn about demons in a town often overrun by ghosts?"

"Well, Sam, since you're clearly the expert on this," Danny said, "see what you can find out about whoever Grusunder is."

"What about me?" Tucker asked, wanting some sort of involvement.

Danny paused for a moment before saying, "You do what you think you'd be best at doing."

"Post countless request blogs on that demon guy and play 'Doomed' when I should be doing something school related?" Tucker said in one breath.

"Yeah, sure," Danny said, not really paying attention. After playing what Tucker said in his head again, Danny exclaimed, "Oh, shoot! I still gotta finish that math homework!" Danny shot up into the air to make his way for home.

"Wait!" Tucker called out. "What about the other demon that attacked earlier?! What if it comes back at you?!"

"Don't worry about it!" Sam called to Danny. "All he was was a messenger! He won't bother you for a while!"

Tucker stared at Sam again, surprised more at how much she seemed to know. "Okay, dude, you're scaring me," Tucker said.


	3. A Call to Devil May Cry

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

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Personal Demons

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Chapter 3: A Call to Devil May Cry

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As Danny arrived home, he shifted back to his human form so to safely enter his house. Before actually doing so, he looked under his shirt to check on the "scratch" the demon left on him earlier. Changing between forms has often been a good healing factor for Danny, and this case was no different. His cut was warped to the scabbing stage and could be left unnoticed as long as he kept his shirt on. Another transformation should heal it completely.

Danny then walked into his home to see his family watching TV. His father, Jack, was first to greet Danny, saying, "Danny, you're just in time to catch Vladdy on the news!"

"Vlad on the news," Danny said, lacking enthusiasm, "swell." Danny took a seat on the couch next to his sister, Jazz, to see what the big story was.

"And finally," the anchorwoman, Harriet Chin, said, "a paranormal attack has been reported from the Hartman Theatre, soon to be demolished. One eye-witness, who was originally protesting the theatre's destruction, described the creature as quote, 'too different to be any ghost I've ever seen,' unquote. Mayor Vlad Masters had this to say." The television then cut to Vlad giving a press conference over the matter.

"The appearence of this monsterous new breed of catastrophe," Vlad said over the flashing bulbs of the many cameras, "furthers my earlier accusations that the ghost 'hero' Danny Phantom attracts more trouble than he is believed to prevent! As mayor, it is my duty to prevent harm to this city and its people. By the way, don't forget to visit Vladbucks after the Hartman's demolition." Danny rolled his eyes at the ironic statement. "Therefore, I'm making a call to the best exterminator of otherworldly creatures to handle both problems. And that is all I have to say."

After Vlad's announcement, Jack rushed over to the phone, ready to pounce it. "Umm, Dad," Jazz started to ask, "what are you doing?"

"This phone's gonna ring," Jack said, "and Vlad's gonna ask me to take out that ghost for him. Who better for him to ask than his ol' college buddy?"

"You know, Dad," Danny intervened, "they never actually said that whatever attacked at the theatre was a ghost."

"Ah, c'mon," Jack said, "what else could it be?"

"Hmm, I dunno," Danny said, looking for the best way to say what he was going to say. "A... demon... maybe...?"

Jack and Maddie blankly looked at their son for a moment before bursting into laughter. It was as if Danny had just told them a hilarious joke, and one that Jack could even understand. "You're- You're joking, right?" Jack asked, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Now, Danny," Maddie added, "there's no such thing as demons."

Danny could hardly believe that his own paranormal investigating parents didn't believe in demons. He simply shrugged it off and made his way upstairs, calling, "I'll be in my room doing homework if anyone needs me." Even after Danny left the room, Jack kept himself by the phone, ready to pounce it as soon as it rang.

"Dad, I don't think he's gonna call," Jazz suggested.

"C'mon, Jazz, it's Vladdy!" Jack said, defending who he still thought was his friend.

"Yeah, and that's why I don't think he's gonna call!" Jazz mentioned, trying to get her point out.

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In another city entirely, in a shop covered in various, albiet grusome, artifacts, the store's owner walked out of the bathroom after "answering nature's call." He was dresed in black pants (which he had just zipped back up), black boots, black gloves, and a black vest worn over a red long-sleeve shirt. Perhaps most unusual was his very white hair for a man his age. He took a seat at his desk, throwing his feet over it, and began polishing a white pistol of his, Ivory. As he was doing so, the phone on his desk rang. He picked it up, and in a cool tone of voice, answered, "Devil May Cry, what d'ya want?"

"Am I speaking to Dante?" the voice on the phone asked.

"Who wants to know?" Dante replied, holding the phone with his head and shoulder as he continued polishing Ivory.

"My name Vlad Masters," the speaker said, introducing himself, "and I'm the mayor of a town called Amity Park. Perhaps you've heard of it?"

"Can't say I do," Dante said, seeming to care less and less as Vlad spoke on.

"Well, you see," Vlad said, "my fair city is being overrun by demons, I don't know how many, and I'm willing to hire and pay you for their extermination. I hear you're the best at what you."

"Then I suppose you've heard correctly," Dante said, loving the massage his ego was recieving.

"Splendid," Vlad ecstaticly said. "By the way, while you're going to be here, I have another problem that needs to be taken care of. There's a ghost by the name of Danny Phantom-"

"Hold on, hold on, hold on," Dante interupted, almost laughing out loud, "a ghost? You're kidding me, right?"

"Oh, ghosts are very real, Dante. And this Danny Phantom has been wrecking havoc for a good long while. If you could-"

"Listen, buddy, I'll take care of the demons. Your 'ghost problem' should probably be left to a therapist."

As Dante considered hanging up, Vlad quickly said, "I'll add a bonus!" Dante was intrigued.

"What kind of bonus?" Dante asked. He listened to Vlad's offer. The ammount surprised him so much, he accidently fired his gun at the cieling. Baffled, he asked again, "Do you really need that many zeroes?!"

"What's your view on ghosts now?" Vlad asked.

"Mr. Masters, consider me an honorary citizen of your town until that ghost is toast," Dante answered. "So, how do I get to your city?"

"Already taken care of," Vlad answered. Afterwards, Dante felt a slight vibration in his office. Much of his knick-knacks were shaking as a loud chopping sound could be heard. Dante had to look outside to see what was up. He opened the door to see a helicopter landing on the road outside his shop. Pleased to know his latest employer had gave him escort in style, Dante walked back into his shop to gather his essentials.

He first put on a long, red trenchcoat from his coatrack which held a pair of holsters and a sheath on its back. After putting it on, he grabbed his guns, the aforementioned Ivory and its black colored counterpart, Ebony, into the holsters. He then grabbed a large sword, called Rebellion, mounted over his desk and sheathed it in the back of his coat. Dante finally stepped out to greet the man expecting him in the helicopter.

"Mr. Masters, I assume?" Dante greeted.

"The same," Vlad greeted back. "Now come in, I've made plenty of arrangements for you."

Dante grinned and said to himself as he entered the helicopter, "This is gonna be one heck of a party."

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And now we have Dante introduced. I'm sure there's a lot of questions to ask, but they'll get answered eventually. I'm sure I know what the number one question is, and I can only answer that by saying if we all know Vlad as well as we ought to, he is very good at planning ahead. Now review! 


	4. The Start of the Scheme

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

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Personal Demons

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Chapter 4: The Start of the Scheme

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"So, did you find anything out about that 'Grusunder' guy yet?" Danny typed to Tucker over a computer webcam chat, recently finishing his math homework.

"Well, I posted request information on every demon, goth, and netherworldly website I could find," Tucker answered, "and honestly, I don't wanna check on most of them. Those websites are just way too creepy. I almost wet myself at DevilDetail(dot)com. Do _not_ go there!"

"I'll make a note of it," Danny said. "So anything?"

"Nothing yet," Tucker said. "I just finished my last post."

"Well, I guess I better check on Sam."

"Dude, why didn't you try her first? She's the expert."

Before Danny could answer, he saw something fly past his window from the corner of his eye. Although he didn't get the best view of it, he swore it was that demon again, or at least another one like it. Without giving his friend a proper good-bye, he logged off the chat and rushed down the stairs. He would've just gone ghost and phased through the wall to give chase, but he didn't want to think of the punishment he'd get if his parents checked on him to find he up and disappeared.

He ran down to the living room where Jack was watching TV and called out, "Going on a jog! Gotta stay in shape!" With that he bolted out the door.

Jack, who was too focused on the TV to notice, blankly responded to no one, "Yeah, have fun at the thing."

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"Pretty spiffy place you got here, Masters," Dante said, touring around the mayoral mansion. "Wouldn't surprise me if you had a gold plated toilet in every bathroom."

"No, they're silver plated," Vlad said, "but I digress. You are aware of your mission, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, slay some demons, get rid of that ghost you're rattling on about, get paid, and be set for life," Dante listed, still looking around the house. "How hard could that be?" Looking around, Dante spotted a mirror on the wall that struck him as interesting. Observing it and checking his hair through it, he said to Vlad, "Cool mirror. How much you pay for this?"

"I'd very much rather you not touch my things!" Vlad quickly said, jumping in Dante's path, blocking the mirror from his sight.

"Hmm. A lot, I see," Dante laughed. Dante changed his tone and said, "Now down to business. Do you have any proof that these demons exist so I know you aren't pulling my leg?"

"Oh, yes," Vlad said, reaching into his suit jacket. He pulled out a photo and said, "Here's a picture one of the citizens took after the first attack."

Dante looked at the photo. "Hmm, a lackey," Dante observed. Stowing the photo in his coat, he added, "You got a big shot running around somewhere, and that'll cost extra."

"Yes, that's nice," Vlad said, mostly ignoring Dante to pull another photo out of his jacket. "And here's that ghost I've been telling you about."

Dante took the picture and observed it. From the moment he laid eyes on the photo, he was sure Vlad had to be throwing money around. It looked like some kid dressed up for Halloween. "...You're kidding, right?"

"Oh, no," Vlad said. "He's much more dangerous than he looks."

"I'll take your word for it," Dante said unenthusiastically, stowing the second photo in his coat. "So, where's the best place to start looking?"

"Well, from the first attack," Vlad pondered, "it would appear these demons are attracted to large crowds of people. I'd recommend the Nasty Burger. Surely, with the dinner hour approaching, it's a disaster waiting to happen."

"Okay, perfect!" Dante exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "I got my gear, got you speed-dial, now I just need a mode of transportation."

"I thought you'd ask for that," Vlad said, reaching into his suit pocket. He pulled out a key and tossed it to Dante. Dante caught it and began to leave the room as Vlad informed, "I'm sure you know your way to the garage. And that key starts the black and red one."

Dante smirked and said to himself, "Wouldn't have it any other way," as he closed the door behind him.

Vlad was now alone in the room. At least for a moment. The mirror behind Vlad began to darken as Grusunder made his presence known. "Why do you toy with him?" Grusunder bellowed. "The son of Sparda is in your grasp, and you just let him leave!"

"Patience, Grusunder," Vlad calmly said. "I'm simply using Dante to get rid of a great thorn in my side. Surely, you know how the game of Chess works. The rook takes out a few pawns while they set the bishop up for the capture."

"Are you suggesting sacrificing my own minions to obtain your own goals?!" Grusunder angrily growled.

"You can call out more, can't you?" Vlad assumed.

"Not as long as I am in this infernal prison!"

"Just keep your head, Grusunder. Or rather, your eye. Your freedom to rule will come as soon as mine does." As Vlad finished speaking, he looked out his mansion window to see Dante ride off into the city on a black and red motorcycle. He grinned as he began to imagine his rise soon after Danny's fall.

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That's chapter four. I was originally going to fuse this with what will be chapter five, but I think this makes for a better set-up. Now leave a nice review. 


	5. A Nasty Meeting

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

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Personal Demons

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Chapter 5: A Nasty Meeting

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On the mostly barren streets of Amity Park, Dante had been weaving his way through whatever traffic was around looking for the previously mentioned Nasty Burger via motorcycle. If what Vlad said was correct, he should find a demon or two at or nearby the eating establishment.

Finally spotting the Nasty Burger sign, Dante sped up to the parking lot and then skided into an empty space. After shutting off the engine and setting up the kickstand, he hopped off his bike and preceded to look around the building. He didn't see much heppening. The inside looked clean, as the dinner rush was going along normally. And around every corner of the extirior, there wasn't any sign of demon activity to be found. Assuming he had just been called on a fluke, Dante was considering heading off on his motorcycle and looking elsewhere. Before he could get a leg up, he heard a very distincted cry, a shriek perhaps, coming from where he was facing.

From what he felt was out of nowhere, some sort of demon flew over him. The demon wasn't alone, as a black streak was right behind it. Dante couldn't identify the streak, which had just taken down the demon onto the roof of the Nasty Burger, but if it was what he thought it was, was there gonna be egg on his face. Dante decided to try to get a better look at the situation by climbing up the Nasty Burger sign. Shimmying his way up the structure, he took note of a green beam from the roof. Dante didn't care where the beam came from, just as long as he was getting paid to take it down.

When the action atop the Nasty Burger was finally in sight, Dante couldn't believe what he saw. That ghost kid Vlad had been talking about was real and was battling against the demon. Just as soon as he had seen the action, the demon gained the upper hand after throwing the kid down. Just as it was about to lunge its grusome claws into the ghost kid, Dante quickly drew Ebony and fired several rounds into the demon. It shrieked in pain and it fell on its back. Dante blew the smoke from the tip of his gun as he saw the ghost kid getting up.

Danny looked at the demon lying before his feet, then in the direction in which the hail of gunfire came from to see a man in a red coat hanging on the sign of the Nasty Burger. "I guess I oughta thank you for saving my butt," Danny said to Dante.

"No sweat," Dante responded. "You must be that Danny Phantom kid I've heard about."

"You've heard of me?" Danny asked, not recalling where he could've seen the man.

"Heard of you?" Dante said, pointing his gun at Danny. "I've been hired to slay you!" Dante fired a shot at Danny, who barely dodged the bullet. Danny flew out of harm's way behind the ventilation system as Dante began firing more shots at him. Rather than just blindly shooting at the ventilation system, Dante continued to climb up the pole and up the sign. When he reached the top the sign he lept an incredible distance to the roof with his abnormally powerful legs. He was so focused on retrieving Danny, he didn't even notice that the demon he had shot earlier was still moving.

As all this was happening, Danny was hiding for cover when he came to a realization. "Wait a minute," he remembered, "why am I hiding from a guy with guns? I can just phase through the bullets without a scratch on me!" As soon as he finished his realization, Dante appeared in front of him out of nowhere. Danny then went intangable to phase through Dante's body to show up behind him and to show him what he was messing with.

"So, you can move through things, huh?" Dante said. He then pointed his gun at Danny and told him, "See if you can move past this!"

"Try me!" Danny dared, still in his intangable state.

"Your funeral," Dante laughed. The moment he pulled the trigger, he was pulled back by his coat collar. That's when he realized the demon wasn't quite finished yet.

As for the fired shot, it didn't hit Danny dead on. It instead grazed his shoulder. Danny gasped and clutched his shoulder in pain. Wait a minute. Pain? Danny shouldn't even have felt that bullet. He was intangable wasn't he? He regained himself enough to see Dante struggle with the demon that affected his shot. The demon had climbed onto Dante's back. Dante rapidly tried to shake it off until he repeatedly slammed the demon into the ventilation system behind him. After the demon's grip weakened, Dante quickly unsheathed his sword, spun around to face the demon, and plunged his blade into its gut. The demon let out a painful cry as it was literally pinned against the ventilation system. It went limp, and as Dante pulled his sword out, the demon didn't cry out again.

After seeing the rather intense scene and fighting to keep his lunch down, Danny had to ask, "Who the heck are you?! And what's in those guns?!"

Dante smiled and answered, "Name's Dante, and these bad boys hold a special ammunition made specifically for bringing down the paranormal." Dante then pointed Ebony at Danny again and toyed, "Now where was I?"

Danny quickly reacted by going back to his intangable form and diving into the Nasty Burger before Dante could fire. Dante's face went sour as he shrugged, "Figures." Wanting to get in the fastest way possible, Dante pulled out Rebellion and gave a mighty whack at the roof below him, creating a large hole to jump through. Dante sheathed his sword, pulled Ebony and Ivory out, and jumped into the eating establishment, landing on one knee with his guns facing foward and behind him. He then called out to the screaming workers and customers, "Has anyone seen a ghost kid fly into here?!"

Dante's only response came from an employee, who yelled, "Dude, you got plasters in the fryers!"

"I guess not," Dante figured. He holstered his guns and proceeded to pull out his phone. Unbeknownst to Dante, Danny had seen the scene by phasing his head through a wall and keeping invisable. As soon as Dante put his guns away, he left the Nasty Burger to retreat home.

Back on Dante, he proceeded to call his employer. "Well?" Vlad answered.

"Well, at least I know you're not crazy," Dante admitted. "That ghost kid is the real deal."

"That's nice to hear," Vlad said. "Perhaps you can tell me something even nicer?"

"Afraid not. He got away."

"Oh, cinna-biscuit!" Vlad came close to losing it, but quickly calmed down and continued, "No worries, there's always tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Dante questioned, "Look, Master's, I'm pretty sure I can off him today..."

"Trust me, it's better this way. Now, let's talk about housing you?"

"What, you got a nice room at your place or a fancy hotel for me to stay, or what?"

"Actually, I had something else in mind."

* * *

Danny had finally made it back home from a very dangerous individual. Changing back to his human form, Danny walked into his house, greeted by his dad, needleworking another anti-ghost decoration. "So, how was your run?" Jack asked.

"My what?" Danny reacted, almost forgeting his own story. "Oh, yeah, it was a real workout. Almost killed me."

"Well, that's just super," Jack said. "Oh, by the way, Vladdy called here not to long ago."

Danny slightly panicked before regain his composure, asked, "What about?"

"He said that-" Before Jack could finish, the doorbell rang. "That must be that thing!" Jack sprang off of the couch as Danny sat down to watch TV. He could overhear Jack opening the door and saying, "Ah, you must be... Dante, was it?"

As soon as Danny heard that name, he had to look to see if his gut was right. Standing in the doorway was the same red-coatted man that tried to kill him.

"I take it this is the Fenton place," Dante responded. "The mayor said I could bunk here for a while. You good with that?"

"Hey, if Vladdy says it's cool, then it's cool," Jack said. He invited Dante in by saying, "Come on in. I'm Jack, and over there on the couch is my son, Danny."

Dante waved, saying, "'Sup, kid?"

Danny simply stared in awe over what he just heard. His newest enemy is now living under the same roof as he is, and he can't do anything about it without bursting out his secret. Danny then shouted "Bathroom!" to excuse himself and ran up the stairs just so he could figure out what to do.

Dante simply stared at the the odd scene as Jack threw his arm around him, saying, "Oh, don't worry about him. He's always like that around strangers."

* * *

Ok, that's the end of that chapter. Pretty interesting, innit? Now, review. 


	6. Toys in the Basement

Good news: I'm not dead! After six months (going on seven) of school, Rock Band, and good ol' procrastination, I'm finally continuing this thing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

* * *

Personal Demons

* * *

Chapter 6: Toys in the Basement

* * *

The next day, school had resumed. As Casper High's students were stuffing their things in their locker, Tucker had met up with Danny, who looked rather stressed. "You okay, dude?" Tucker asked.

"Last night," Danny explained, "while I was fighting off another one of those demons, I was almost killed by a bounty hunter."

"Bounty Hunters shouldn't worry you, man!" Tucker said. "You're Danny Phantom, you shouldn't-"

"Let me finish, Tuck!" Danny said. His irritability could be on account of his recent paranoia. "This guy has magic guns that can hurt me, a massive sword that'll do I-don't-even-wanna-know what, and abilities that can't even be described as human!"

"Well, it could be worse."

"Vlad hired him and Dad allowing him to stay at our place," Danny said soon after.

"Well..." Tucker tried to think. "No, that situation can't get any worse. You're dead, Danny."

"Thanks for the support," Danny sarcastically said.

Just as Danny and Tucker finished their conversation, Sam called out, "Hey, guys," from across the hallway. As she walked up to them, the boys couldn't help but notice a chain and lock around her waist.

"Hey, Sam," Danny greeted. "So, what's with the chain?"

"Oh, this?" Sam said. "The Hartman Theater's set for demolition in a few days and the rally and I are gonna chain ourselves to the foundation tommorrow. I'm wearing the chain to prepare the uncomfort I'm gonna face the next day."

"If you're gonna talk about being uncomfortable," a female voice said from behind, "you might as well describe the rest of the student body seeing you in that mockery of a fashion statement." Sam looked behind to see Star, the most popular girl in school, laughing at her own joke. A few passing students joined in her laughter so for Star to notice them, not even hearing of what she just said.

"Yeah, Star, that was a funny joke," Sam said, false laughing. "Speaking of fashion statements, have you ever considered exchanging that flower in your hair with a roll of tape over your mouth? It's all the rave."

"That's real cute, Manson," Star said, brushing off Sam's comment. "I'd suggest you watch what you say around me. In case you haven't noticed, I have people." Star motioned behind her to bring Sam, Danny, and Tucker's attention to Casper's athletic heroes and full-time bullies, Dash Baxter and Kwan, who were just finishing stuffing a defenseless nerd in his locker. She continued, "I'd really hate for something to happen to you or your little friends."

"Whatever," Sam rolled her eyes, not taking the threat in the slightest. "At least Paulina never abu-"

Star slammed Sam against the lockers at the name in question. Like a wide-eyed woman possessed, she snapped "You mention that has-been's name around me again and I'll knock your teeth so far down your throat, you'll have to swallow your food before you can actually chew it!!"

"Dude!" was all Tucker could say at the gruesome threat Star made. Her eye twitching and teeth clenched, Star stormed off.

Sam was referring to the school's previous popularity princess, Paulina. Paulina was once a normal middle school student, until a misunderstanding, a kidnapping, and an experiment gone horribly right turned her into Downpour, giving her the power to morph into and blast water. A second misunderstanding, a desperite act, and a horrible accident led to her terrible fate. Danny tried get her help in Amity Park, but she turned into a puddle and disappeared down a sewer gutter, never to be heard from again.

"Sam, I'd really prefer you not mention Paulina around me either," Danny said, unable to shake the memory of her melting in his hands.

"Danny, I can't get over what happened to Paulina either," Sam said. "She didn't deserve it, no one did. But c'mon, seeing Star snap is priceless, right? Right?" Danny and Tucker didn't answer, simply giving cold stares. Sam sighed and apologized, "Okay, I'm sorry."

Before Danny could get back to his usual business, he remembered, "Oh, Sam, what did you find out about that Grusunder guy?"

"Oh, right!" Sam remembered. "Here's what I found out: Grusunder was a powerful demon who existed two thousand years ago. His claws were able to rip open a portal from the demon dimension to ours. He's single handedly the reason there are still demons in this dimension today."

"Wait... there are still demons out there?" Tucker asked, a bit uneasy.

"Sure," Sam said. As Tucker began to look around in paranoia, Sam continued, "Grusunder had Earth in his hands until a rebel demon named Sparda fought through his armies and contained him inside a magic mirror, where he could never unleash anymore of his evil."

Danny intervened, saying, "That all sounded real believeable up until the whole 'magic mirror' thing. It's a little cliché to be true."

"And you're believing everything else?" Sam came back. "I know it sounds a little too fairy-taley, but that's what I found."

"So this guy who brought armies of demons is coming back to finish what he started?" Tucker panicked.

"I highly doubt it," Sam said. "It takes a certain number of demons to bring him to consciousness from his mirror and Sparda's blood to truly set him free. Sparda's been dead for ages, there's no way he can free Grusunder now. If anything, all these demons want is company."

"I think we should take this situation seriously," Danny reminded. "That attack from yesterday was not an empty threat."

"But how can Grusunder's age be coming if the only guy who can bring him back is dead?" Tucker asked, trying to get on the bright side. Before Danny could give an answer, the bell for home room rang.

"Looks like we'll have to discuss this later," Danny said as the three departed.

* * *

A few hours later, back at the Fenton home, a red and black motorcycle pulled up to the sidewalk. Dante turned off the engine and got off with a sour look on his face. Walking into the Fenton household, he was greeted by Maddie, who had just finished cleaning various knick knacks. "So, Dante," Maddie said, "how was your ride?"

"City's clean, ma'am," Dante said, retiring on the couch with his feet on the coffee table. "Didn't find hide nor hair of any demons. I know they're still around. Got a bit of a sixth sense on these things."

"By the way," Maddie brought up, "Jack wanted to see you in the basement. He wants to show you something he just finished in the lab."

Dante got up and sighed, "Just when I was gettin' comfortable."

Dante walked to the basement by way of the kitchen. As soon as Dante was out of the living room, Maddie let out an uproarous laughter, holding her sides as she wiped a tear from her eye. After she started to calm down, she simply said to herself, "Haha, demons..." She gave out another chuckle as she continued to do housework.

To the basement, Dante was making his decent to the room in question. Before his eyes laid a marvelous collection of gadgets and what-nots, many metalic grey with some green thrown in. As Dante looked around at the gizmos, he found Jack underneath a recreational vehicle of some sort.

Jack got out from under the RV and noticed Dante, saying, "So, you like what you see?"

"Pretty neat lab you got here, Jack," Dante answered.

"If you thought the lab was neat," Jack said, getting up from the ground, "get a load of this baby I cooked up." Dante followed Jack to a steel workbench, in which Jack picked up what looked like a very compact bazooka with a hilt and finger trigger. Jack explained, "This is the Fenton Net Launcher. It fires a net that no ghost can escape from. I want you to have it, that way you can capture all those ghosts you're hunting."

"Actually," Dante began, "I'm only hunting one ghost, and a bunch of demons. I doubt that-" Dante was interrupted by a burst of laughter from Jack.

"Haha, demons!" Jack laughed. "That's a good one!"

As soon as Jack calmed down, Dante asked him, "I take it you don't believe in demons?"

"Of course I don't," Jack said. He explained, "Demons can't possibly exist. Existing is what ghosts are for! And let me tell ya Dante: if there's one thing ghosts are good at, it's existing!"

Dante rolled his eyes at Jack's explanation, dryly saying, "Fascinating point, big guy." He decided to get back to the net launcher, saying, "So you say that that gun fires a net that no ghost can escape from. How do you know it works?"

"That's a good question," Jack said, rubbing his chin. He clearly hadn't thought of this. Jack's face then lit up, telling Dante, "Follow me!" Jack's ran over to a large device which lied beside a large doorway.

Seeing both of these massive structures, Dante had to ask, concerning the doorway, "What the heck is that?"

"It's the Fenton Ghost Portal," Jack said, removing one of his gloves. "It's the gateway that leads from our dimension to the Ghost Zone."

"So, that would technically make it your fault that ghosts like that Phantom kid are terrorizing the city to begin with?" Dante had to ask. Jack simply gave him a cold stare, and an awkward silence filled the lab.

"_Anyway_," Jack breaking the silence, "I'm going to open the ghost portal using the Fenton Genetic Lock. Once a ghost shows up, I'll use the Fenton Net Launcher to catch it, and it shouldn't be able to phase out of it. I want you to be my back up." Jack put his bare thumb on the scanner. After it beeped in conformation, the portal opened up with a creak that sounded like a beast's growl. Jack, more than ready, called out "Let's boogie!!"

As Jack was putting his glove back on, a giant claw emerged from the Ghost Portal. Following the claw, the head of a giant five-eyed iguana emerged. It crawled out, revealing itself to have six legs, and let out a mighty roar at the two. "That's supposed to be a ghost?" Dante said, not expecting a creature like what he was seeing.

"They come in all shapes and sizes," Jack said, "and this one's about to be in the shape of having a net around it!" Jack pointed his weapon at the ghost iguana and called out, "Eat capture, lizzie!" Jack pulled the trigger and the net fired. Or rather, backfired. The net shot out from its back end, wrapping itself around Jack instead of the iguana. Jack shrugged at Dante and said, "Well, there are still a few bugs to work out."

As the overgrown lizard charged at the two, Dante shrugged, "Oh, brother." Dante pulled out Ebony and Ivory, firing at the iguana's many eyes. Dante was successful in blinding the beast, as it cried out and thrashed about in the lab, damaging much of what was inside. Dante then pulled out Rebellion and dashed at the iguana. He sliced across from below the lizard's head, removing its neck frill. The beast cried out in pain again, ectoplasmic matter spewing all over the lab. The giant iguana tried to retreat, miraculously finding its way back to the ghost portal. Before it could get itself in, Dante raised his sword up again and sliced down at its tail, making the beast move even faster into the portal. Smiling at his handiwork, Dante picked up the lizard's removed tail, waving it in the air and taunting, "Yeah, you better run!"

Dante withdrew his sword and tossed the tail aside. Jack looked awe-struck, shouting, "That was RIGHTEOUS!" He then said, "Oh, could ya probably..."

"Sure, no problem," Dante said, reading Jack's mind. "Hold still." No sooner had Dante finished his instructions, he swiped his sword up and, in that one fell swoop, freed Jack from the net.

"That was ALSO RIGHTEOUS!" Jack said again, still very excited. He continued, "Now, you know how the Fenton Net Launcher works..."

"Whoa, back up," Dante said, finding an excuse not to accept one of the Fenton's toys, "didn't you say you had to fix that thing up?"

"Ah, it's nothing," Jack said, "just hold it backwards and fire away. Any idiot could figure that out, so why would he fix it?" Jack recalled the wording of his previous sentence and said, "Wait, let me try that again..."

"No, no, don't," Dante said. "I'll take the weapon, if it makes you happy." Dante reluctantly took Jack creation and slipped it into his coat. He then looked back at the portal and said, "Don't you think we should close that?"

"Oh, right," Jack remembered. He removed his glove and pressed his thumb on the scanner again. As soon as the confirmation beep sounded...

"I AM THE BOX-" was all the following ghost could get out before the gates to the ghost portal closed on his neck. Gasping for air, he called out, "Open it! Open it back up again!" Jack opened the gate again, allowing the ghost to retain himself. He then called out "BEWARE!" and retreated. Jack closed the portal up again.

* * *

I wish I came up with a better conclusion to that. Now that that's out of the way, this chapter was originally going to start with Dante sharing dinner with the Fentons, allowing me to open the subplot of Jazz having a schoolgirl crush on our favorite demon hunter. It would then go into the second half of this chapter, with the first half going onto the next. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the words for the dinner scene or a way to include Jazz in it all, so now you're stuck with this. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take seven months of my time to get going. By the way, did you all like that allusion to DYS?


	7. Motivated Again

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

* * *

Personal Demons

* * *

Chapter 7: Motivated Again

* * *

As evening was approaching, the Fenton household was finishing dinner. Around the table, Danny made it his duty to stay as far away from Dante as possible, even if it meant sitting directly across from him to see each other face to face. Jazz sat next to Danny for comfort, Jack was having thirds (going on fourths) of Maddie's hamburger casserole, and Maddie put herself on dish duty, as per her nature as a wife, mother, and hostess.

Dante finished his helping and got up to drop his dish off. As he placed his plate in the sink, he said to Maddie, "Thanks for the food, Mrs. Fenton. It was magnifique."

Maddie blushed and said, "Oh, thank you Dante. And you can call me Maddie."

"Well, now that we're on first name bases, Maddie," Dante said, "how do you make such a delicious casserole. I get kinda tired of ordering out."

As Maddie was sharing recipes with Dante, Jazz made to make conversation with Danny, whispering out of Jack's earshot, "You can't be scared of him, can you?"

"I'm terrified," Danny said. "He's way too deadly for me to be around."

"But he's bonding so well with Mom," Jazz said. "He's like a big teddy bear."

"Jazz, I dodge a bullet facing him," Danny said, "literally. If you've seen him guns ablaze, you be worried of him staying here too." Danny then realized, "And did you just call him a teddy bear?"

Before he could get an answer, Danny's phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and checked, seeing that Sam was calling him. He then said, "May I be excused, please?"

"Yes, you may," Maddie said, not skipping a beat with her conversation with Dante.

Danny left the dining room and answered his call. "What's going on?" he asked, immediately assuming the worst.

"I just saw a demon fly past my window," Sam said. "It was just out of the corner of my eye, but then I looked out and saw it flying away. I don't know where it's heading, but I really think you should do something before someone gets hurt."

"You know, Sam, it's just starting to get dark," Danny said, a bit on the nervous side, "my family and I have just finished with dinner..."

"Are you trying to avoid this, Danny?!" Sam said, clearly upset.

"I'm just saying that there's someone else here to take out the demons and I'd rather let him take care of them while I lay low," Danny gave as an excuse.

"Oh, so you're just gonna stand back and let a killer demon do the worst that could happen just because you think someone else will do the job for you?" Sam said. "Some hero you are."

"It's not the demon," Danny explained, "it's the guy taking out the demons that worry me. He almost killed me! I mean, sure, I was asking for it and didn't know his bullets could-"

"Danny, I know you," Sam said, trying to get the spirit back into Danny. "You've never cowered before anyone in your life. You always fought back. So put this all behind you and do something!"

Danny remained silent, taking into mind what Sam just said to him. "Yeah, you're right!" Danny said, in a sense of eureka. "I am gonna do something! And not one demon hunter is gonna stop me!"

"I knew you would!" Sam said, proud of her friend. "Go get 'em! And Danny?"

"Yeah, Sam?" Danny listened.

"...Be careful," Sam advised before hanging up.

After Danny hung up his phone, he went back to the dining room with an excuse to leave the house. "Wow, Mom, that was a great dinner," Danny said, laying it on a little thick, "but the last thing I want is for all this to go to my thighs. I'll be out to run it out." Danny dashed out the room as soon as he finished. Jazz, observing the whole thing, slapped her forehead and shook her head stressfully, wondering how Danny could have been any more blunt.

"What a strange boy you have, Maddie," Dante said, still trying to process what just happened.

"Well, he gets it from his father," Maddie explained.

On the Fenton doorstep, after checking the coast to be clear, Danny took the form of his ghostly alter ego and took flight, hoping to see the demon from above or perhaps meet it in the sky.

Inside again, after Jazz dismissed herself to continue her school work, Dante prepared to dismiss himself as well, saying to the Fentons, "Well, I'm off for street patrol again. Maybe I'll see some more action tonight, eh, Jack?" As he nudged toward Jack, Dante's phone started vibrating in his coat pocket. Knowing it was his employer, Dante opened his cell up and said into it, "Yeah?"

"Ah, Dante," Vlad responded. "Glad to speak to you again. Tell me, how is your stay with the Fentons?"

"Well," Dante said, trying to find the right words, "it's... interesting. Now, I'm assuming you're not calling just to ask how cozy I am?"

"Actually, I have another lead," Vlad said, intriguing Dante. "The information I have tells that the demons may have a hideout of sorts. You recall me telling you of the first attack at the Hartman Theater, correct?"

"The one with all the hippies out front?" Dante asked, recalling an earlier patrolling. "I think I know the place."

"Well, you see," Vlad said, "I feel the demons are not trying to slaughter innocents, but trying to protect their base of operations."

"If that was the case," Dante said, quickly analyzing Vlad's prediction, "wouldn't they try attacking the demolition crew set to take it down? Or maybe you for wanting it down to begin with?"

"That's beside the point!" Vlad snapped, somewhat defensive. "Now, this isn't one hundred percent accurate, but it's the best speculation I could come up with. I suggest you move it!"

Before Dante could say anything else, he was met with the snap of a closing cell phone in his reciever. "This place is too wierd for me," Dante muttered to himself. He then turned to the Fentons and said, "Looks like the mayor's got another job for me to get to. I'll catch you all later."

"Vladdy has you on another mission?" Jack said, jumping out of his seat. He then said, "Wait one minute," Jack rushed away from the kitchen table and to the basement. Mere seconds later, Jack emerged back up with an armful of his inventions, excitedly saying, "Can I come?!"

"Um..." Dante pondered the best thing to say without bringing down Jack's spirit. He finally came up with, "...no."

Jack pouted at first, but quickly got back to his giddy self by asking Dante, "Well, if you can't take me, do you at least wanna take one of our ghost fighting inventions?" He dropped all the inventions on the floor and picked up one to present to Dante. "The Fenton Ghost Weasel?" presenting a shop vaccuum. "The Fenton Scent Sensor?" presenting a mechanical nose. "The Fenton Anti-Creep Stick?" presenting a wooden stick.

"...a baseball bat?" Dante had to ask about the anti-creep stick.

"With the word 'Fenton' on it!" Jack proudly stated, presenting the Fenton logo with displayed on the bat.

"That's really nice and all," Dante said, pretty anxious to see action, "but I'll just stick with what I have." He then left the kitchen and headed for the front door.

"Like the Fenton Net Launcher?" Jack called to Dante, reminding him of what he had.

"Sure!" Dante called back, not really caring about it anyway. The door could be heard shutting from the dining room, followed by the revving of a motorcycle engine.

"Well, I guess I should be working on another Fenton masterpiece!" Jack exclaimed, rushing down the basement to do just that. Remembering he had left most of his junk upstairs, rushed back up and said, "Maddie, when you're done with the dishes, do you think you can take care of this? Love ya!" He retreated again, causing Maddie to give him a cold, hard stare as he went down.

* * *

I think that last thing is _so_ something Jack would do. Review! Now!


	8. Curtains

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

* * *

Personal Demons

* * *

Chapter 8: Curtains

* * *

Danny had already looked through half the city and couldn't find hide nor hair of the demon Sam had called him about. While she never gave anything concrete, Danny trusted Sam enough to believe that there was a demon somewhere out there. Danny recalled yesterday, how she was the first person the first demon tried to attack. He didn't want anyone to have to get hurt by those things, especially Sam. Now that he thought of it, all the demons only seemed to show up around himself and his friends. The more he thought about it, the more he began to think these demon attacks weren't random.

Before Danny could have further speculations, he was suddenly tackled from behind. The next thing he knew, he found himself crashing through the roof of a building. After the roof, he crashed through another wooden surface. Coming out of his daze, Danny saw the demon pinning him, about to slash his face off. Danny reacted as quickly as he could and blasted the demon in the chest, sending it back through the hole they crashed through.

Danny flew back up to not just continue the fight, but also figure out where he was. He made a quick observation of his surroundings. He saw dusty old bench seats, worn out wooden columns, and he noticed he was hovering over an elevated stage. This must've been the Hartman Theater. Danny quickly noticed the demon trying at him again. He sidestepped the demon flying toward him, grabbed at its arm, and swung it at the wall behind him. The impact severely damaged the wall, but the demon quickly recovered as if it were nothing. It roared at Danny and flew back at him for more.

Outside, a sounds of a motorcycle engine could be heard from a distance. Dante had just made it to the Hartman Theater. He parked on the other side of the road and looked at the worn out building from afar. "No hippies," he observed. "Looks like I might be able to break stuff." After setting the kick stand, Dante headed up to the theater to go inside, ignoring the the yellow caution tape.

At the box office, Dante noticed how dusty the place was, clearly unused in decades. Along with his observation, he heard a ruckus coming from behind the door to the stage. "Surely, they can't be having a show in there," Dante assumed. His assumption was correct as the door exploded from a concussive beam of green. Dante ducked just in the nick of time to avoid being hit by the beam himself, also dodging the splinter that came with it.

After getting up Dante was surprised at what he saw. Not only was Vlad's lead about the demon correct, but Danny Phantom was there, too. While Dante could watch the two battle all day, Dante had a job to do.

Putting his eye on the demon first, he pulled out his sword, holding the hilt like a javelin. Doing his best to predict the demon's movements, he threw Rebellion at it, hoping to hit his target.

As Danny was trying to keep his own against the demon, it suddenly jerked to his left. He had no idea what just happened, so he looked that way. To his surprise and his disgust, the demon had been pinned against the wall by a giant sword in its chest. It cried and struggled as tried to get the sword out, ultimately to stop moving altogether.

Danny simply stared at the gruesome sight, unable to take his eyes away. He finally snapped back to reality with the sound of clapping behind him. He turned around to see his latest enemy providing the applause. It was Dante who threw the sword after all.

"Bravo, kid," Dante said, mockingly. "I'd ask for an encore, but it looks like your co-star is... indisposed."

Danny stared Dante down, saying, "I'm ready to fight you. I'm not afraid of you anymore."

Dante, rather than question whether the ghost was afraid of him to start with, smirked and reached for his guns and said, "That's a shame." He then drew and pointed, saying, "You really should be."

Acting quickly, Danny went intangible and dived under the stage. Dante chuckled, going, "Really?" He then opened fire below the stage, sure of turning his target into swiss cheese. After firing multiple rounds, the structure holding the stage finally collapsed, turning the stage into a splinted wasteland.

"That was easy enough," Dante said, observing the scene. Before he could re-holster his guns, something snatched them from below him. Surprised, he looked up at where that something went. There, he saw Danny placing his guns on a beam up in the rafters, clearly an attempt to disarm him.

"The old fly-under-the-stage-and-go-invisible-to-get-out-of-harm's-way-until-the-enemy-lets-their-guard-down-to-become-vulnerable-to-disarming trick," Danny said.

"That's a mouthful of a strategy," Dante said. "You didn't get all of my weapons, though!" Dante then made a quick dash to where his sword was.

Danny acted just as fast, flying at a blinding to catch up with Dante. When he did, he grabbed Dante's flowing coat and, using his ability to make himself and other objects intangible, stuck the coat into a bench. Dante wickedly whiplashed as a result, completely unaware of what just happened. When he regained himself, he saw Danny pulling the sword out from the wall, the demon still impaled on the blade. Dante tried to make his move again, still unaware that his coat was stuck in an impossible location. By the time he noticed, Danny was already advancing towards him. Dante quickly slipped out of his coat and avoided what could've been a brutal slice.

Dante was facing Danny unarmed now, simply doing his best to anticipate what the ghost kid would do next. Danny, a bit fed up and grossed out with the demon on his newly acquired weapon, used his ghost ray to blast it off, creating the disturbing sound of steel against body matter as it rocketed toward Dante. Dante acted incredibly fast at this, side-stepping the flying body and grabbing its flailing limbs. Using the body's momentum, Dante swung it back like an Olympic hammer and redirected it at Danny. Danny couldn't react fast enough and was met face to face with a demon body, causing the sword to fly out of his hands. As Danny was pinned under the demon, Dante lept up in the air and grabbed his sword, somersaulting on his way down to chop his ghostly adversary in two. Danny quickly got the demon off of him and rolled away as fast as he could. It wasn't as fast as he'd like, as the sword managed to just slice his left arm. Danny got up and kept his distance from Dante, holding tightly onto his arm while doing so. He looked to see the damage, seeing a green substance from the cut sticking between his gloved hand and exposed arm.

"That looks like it hurts," Dante said, noting Danny's reaction. "How about a little painkiller?"

Dante ran towards Danny, ready to finish the job the mayor hired him for. Danny tried retaliating, flying backwards and throwing ghost rays with his good arm. Dante deflected the shots with mighty sword, backslahing at Danny as soon as he got close enough. Danny avoided the sword and retreated upwards, flying to the rafters to recuperate.

"You're not afraid of me anymore, huh?" Dante called from below. "You're really showing your merits, kid!"

After Dante's taunting, Danny began throwing hails of ghost rays at the demon hunter. Dante moved as fast as he could to avoid them, occasionally deflecting the rays with his sword. Still moving, Dante hopped onto a bench seat, keeping his balance while avoiding Danny's blasts. He ran towards towards the end of the bench towards a wall, still maintaining his edge under the unbelievable pressure against him. Dante lept off the edge of the bench, getting an abnormally high vertical leap as Danny blasted the last of the bench. He then sprung off the wall he was flying towards to go further up to the rafters. Dante landed directly on the rafter's railing with the balance to make an Olympic gymnast green with envy and swung his sword at Danny, aiming to slice his head clear off his shoulders. Danny ducked and fired another shot, successfully striking Dante in the chest. Dante fell off the railing, but into the rafters, thankful he didn't have to do that whole routine again.

"You know, kid," Dante said, getting up, "you put up a decent fight. But I'm getting paid a lot of cash to take you out, and you'd make it that much easier for both of us if you just hold still!"

As Dante swung his sword down at Danny again, Danny instinctively put up a shield of ectoplasmic energy in front of him. Rebellion didn't move past the shield, surprising both that it was able to hold. "Lemme guess," Danny quipped, "Vlad Masters put you up to this?" Danny pushed the shield foward, turning it into an energy projection that drove Dante back a bit.

"I take it you two are familiar," Dante noted. "As much as I'd like to know more about your relationship, I'd like to get my check tonight!"

"Aren't you seeing any pattern here?!" Danny shouted, again avoiding the massive swings from Dante's sword. "You're always running into a fight between me and a demon! If you only came here for only one of us, don't you at least think Mayor Cheesehead is pulling some strings?"

"As much as I'd like to hear more conspiracy theories," Dante said, "I'd _really_ like to get this done." Dante delivered a horizontal slash at Danny, who ducked under the sword easily. Danny got his head back up, not seeing Dante still spinning to deliver a heel kick to the side of his head. The kick sent Danny over the railing, plummeting to the ground below. He was too dazed to fly back up and hit the ground hard.

Dante saw an opportunity to finally finish this fight. He lept over the railing after Danny, raising his sword high to slice the ghost in half. Unfortunately for him, Danny came to just in the nick of time, putting up an energy shield around his whole body this time. When Dante hit the sheild, he bounced off like a squash ball, sending him a good distance back. Danny let his shield down, trying to catch a breath while Dante was back.

But Dante, still with stamina to spare, came running back to bring his sword down at Danny. Danny put up another sheild around his body, to which Dante's sword just slightly bounced off before he was bringing it down at full force. "Give it up, kid," Dante said with gritted teeth. "You can't stay under there forever!"

Danny knew he was right. Eventually, Dante would overpower Danny and break his sheild, leaving him split open like a piñata. Danny mustered up as much energy as he could, not to hold the shield up, but to blow it apart. It worked earlier, and he might be able to get away if it works here. Just as Dante was about to break him, the shield around Danny exploded, not only sending the white-haired man directly into the wall above the house entrance, but also destroying the bench seatings, what was left of the stage, basically the whole theatre all together. Danny was very worn out at this point, but was just there enough to notice much of the building was starting to fall down on him. Danny quickly went intangible to avoid further debris, surprised he still had the energy to do so, and flew out before the whole building was a pile of rubble.

As Danny evacuated himself from the premises, he looked down at the aftermath, parts of the theater still collapsing. Seeing everything go done, the worst thought came to Danny's mind. Dante was still in there! He just left him buried alive in the pile of rubble that used to be a theater! "Oh no, what have I done?!" Danny panicked. Danny fled the scene back home, deathly afraid he had just killed someone.

* * *

As Danny arrived back at his home of Fentonworks, he was still in a tremendous state of panic and worry. He touched down on the porch and shifted back to his human state, to scared to even think of checking on his wound from earlier. Danny entered the house and headed straight for his room upstairs.

"How was your run?"

Danny shrieked at the sudden voice. He was so scared, he hadn't even noticed his mother tidying up the living room.

"Oh, Mom, hi," Danny said, really not wanting to talk. He then rapidly spoke, "I'm exhausted from all that running and I gotta go right to bed to sleep it off. Good night!"

As Danny continued upstairs, Maddie noted, "But it's only a quarter past eight."

"I SAID I'M TIRED!" Danny exploded, failing miserably at being unsuspicious. He ran upstairs and into his room, thinking maybe all of this fear will go away in the morning.

* * *

Back at the streets of Amity Park, a random citizen was having a nice evening stroll. As he was approaching a turn, he noticed the ruins of the Hartman Theatre. "Wow," he said, awestruck. "Looks like the mayor went ahead of schedule." Before he could carry on, he swore he had just seen movement. He ran closer to the rubble to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Quite frankly, they weren't.

The passerby saw a white-haired man digging through the tons of debris, having just picked up a black pistol and putting it in the back of his pants, where a matching white pistol also stuck. What made the passerby's jaw hit the sidewalk was that a large wooden beam was impaled into the man from his left shoulder and coming out the right side of his abdomen. The man just continued on as though the beam wasn't bothering him.

A moment later, the white-haired man was pulling up at something, giving a mighty to reveal a red trench coat. It had a piece of wood attached to it, but the man didn't seem to care much for it. He went to put it on, finding himself unable to. He looked around himself and sighed at the sight of the beam. It was as if he had just realized he had been skewered. Dropping his coat, he put both his hands at the end of the beam on his right side and pushed up to get it out. As the beam made its way out of the man's left shoulder, he gave grunts of displeasure as opposed to screams of torment.

The gruesome sight made the passerby gag. The man turned around, apparently hearing the passerby, to notice him. The man simply shrugged and continued with his duties. Finally getting the beam out, the man turned around to the passerby, waving the bloodstained board and shouting to him, "Well _there's_ your problem!" The passerby immediately fainted.

Dante looked down at fainted passerby, going, "Tch, figures." He tossed the beam behind him, picked up his coat, grabbed his sword which he laid aside to search for his other effects, and made his way for his motorcycle. Fortunately, he remember to check his pocket for the ignition key before he started looking for his gear.

* * *

Ugh, I hate being behind schedule. The hardest part for this chapter was how to destroy the theatre. Anyway, this beast is out of the way, and hopefully, updates will come along more smoothly.


	9. Panic Attack

Jeez, it's been a year since I started this thing already?!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

* * *

Personal Demons

* * *

Chapter 9: Panic Attack

* * *

The next morning, as Danny was dressing himself for school, he still couldn't shake off the incident at the Hartman. He defended himself as best he could and left a man to die in the process. He just had to stay cool and collective and not bring it up for the rest of his life. No pressure, right?

Fully dressed, Danny went down stairs for breakfast. Maybe a nice square meal would keep his mind away from things.

Danny entered the kitchen to see his mother preparing pancakes at the counter. A plate of stacked flapjacks were already laid out on the table for someone reading today's newspaper, no doubt Jack reading the funnies, Danny thought. Danny put on his cool face, calmly exhaled, and greeted, "Good morning, Mom."

"Good morning, Danny," Maddie replied. Hearing her son's greeting, Maddie finished her remaining flapjacks up, put them on a plate, and brought them to Danny. Before Danny could reach for the maple syrup, his mother gasped at what she saw on the front page of the newspaper. "Oh, no," Maddie unhappily said, "they destroyed the Hartman already. I was going to rally against its demolition."

"You were?" Danny said, interested in what she had to say.

"It was where your father took me on our first date back in college," Maddie reminisced. "I thought it was romantic, but Jack was a bit disappointed to learn the _Phantom of the Opera_ was the name of a play, not an actual phantom."

"I'm sure you could've prevented it by yourself," Danny remarked. "You know what Mayor Cheesehead would do for you. Try asking him to jump off a cliff and see what happens."

Maddie gasped and said, "Danny, you know that's not a nice thing to say about Vlad!"

"Yeah!" a voice from behind the newspaper said. Danny was a bit startled to learn it wasn't Jack, but was in utter disbelief when the newspaper folded down to reveal the man he left for dead. Dante continued, "So, what was that you called Masters again?"

Danny couldn't believe his eyes. Not only was Dante alive, but he didn't have a scratch on him! Danny just stared at Dante, his mouth agape, finding this situation impossible to be real.

"You okay, kid?" Dante asked the suddenly stone-faced Danny. "You look like you've seen a-" Dante looked over his shoulder before completing his sentence, remembering which town he was in. He turned back and said, "Nope. But seriously, what'd you just-"

"Hey, Mom, can I get my breakfast to go?" Danny asked his mother in a paranoiac manner. "I _really_ feel like getting to school early toady."

"But I made pancakes," Maddie reminded. "Why do you-"

Danny frantically interrupted, "If you could just put it in a nice little plastic baggy and pour some syrup in there, that'd be great."

"Jeez, kid, why so frantic?" Dante calmly said. "You're acting like you just killed-"

"You know what?!" Danny exploded in panic, bursting up from his seat. "I've lost my appetite! I'm getting out of here!" Danny then bolted out the kitchen heading straight for the front door, having to get away from... whatever Dante could be classified under.

Dante simply stared out the kitchen, not sure if he could define what just happened. "You have a _very_ strange son, Maddie," was all he could say.

"Well, you know how teenagers can be," Maddie simply explained.

Dante continued to observe the newspaper and concluded to Maddie, "He may be stranger than you think."

* * *

Some time later at Casper High, before classes began, Danny was pacing around the courtyard, still trying to figure out what had to have happened for Dante to survive the Hartman's collapse. Surely, under the given circumstances, someone could survive after having tons of debris fall on them, right? All this thinking was really putting Danny on nerve's end.

"Hey, Danny," Tucker said, walking up to Danny. The sudden greeting made Danny give a small shriek, then a light relieved chuckle when he realized it was just his best friend. Concerned, Tucker asked, "You okay, dude?"

"Oh, I just left a man to die in a collapsing theater," Danny said, still in a somewhat unstable. "And if that wasn't enough, he's at my house right now, with not a scratch on him, and he's eating pancakes! Isn't that great?!"

Tucker simply stared at Danny and said, "So... is that a 'no'?"

After Danny's near psychotic episode, Tucker noticed Sam coming from behind him, not looking very pleased. "I take it your not happy, either?" Tucker said to Sam, stating the obvious.

"Either?" Sam asked.

"Don't ask, just don't ask," Danny said, not wanting to revisit last night.

"So, what are you in a bad mood about?" Tucker asked Sam.

"Apparently," Sam began, "people couldn't wait to pay eight dollars for a cup of coffee, so our 'loving' mayor decided to destroy a piece of history a day early!"

"Oh, imagine that," Danny said in a distressed tone, followed by a light cackle.

Sam was concerned, so had to ask, "Danny, are you feeling alright?"

"You know that piece of history you were talking about?" Danny said, clearly not in a healthy state of mind. "That was me! I destroyed that theater defending myself from a sword swinging maniac who, apparently, CAN'T DIE! How do I know he can't die? I left him _to_ die, accidentally I remind you, by leaving him under tons of rubble, and he comes back the next day because he can't get enough of my mom's cooking! And Sam, if you even start thinking, 'Oh, Danny, how could you,' I am going to FREAK!!"

Sam and Tucker just stood where they were, staring at a deep breathing Danny. Sam made the brave choice of speaking by saying, "Kinda like you are now?" Danny realized what he did and hid his face in his hands in shame. Sam saw Danny on the verge of a breakdown, so sought to comfort him.

"Danny, you need to relax," Sam said, holding Danny. "So you've had a rough night. What else is new? Let's just go to our classes, learn thing we probably won't need in the real world, and hopefully by the time school's over, you'll be over the whole thing."

Danny remained silent for a moment. He then took his face out of his hands and said to his friends, "I'd like that." As if on cue, the bell rang to begin the school day. The three friends walked inside together, for Danny's sake.

* * *

I'm really lame at closing a lot of my chapters. This is one of those examples. Review away.


	10. Monster Garage

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

* * *

Personal Demons

* * *

Chapter 10: Monster Garage

* * *

After the final bell rang and class was dismissed, Sam and Tucker immediately went to Danny, hoping he was out of his current funk. They had hoped he had calmed down and would be, at the very least, approachable. When they caught up to him, Sam spoke up first and said, "Well, how are you feeling?"

"A little better, I guess," Danny said as the three stepped outside. "Not a hundred percent, but better." As they came down the steps from the doors, they noticed a large crowd of students around a tree. Or at least where a tree used to be.

The three friends rushed to the scene to see what was up to find to tree was, for some reason, cut down. The tree lied on the ground, aside from its slightly angled stump. Tucker, knowing what was coming next, checked the clock on his PDA and counted down, "Three, two, one..."

"Why would anyone wanna cut down this tree?!" Sam angrily called out, allowing her eco-warrior side take over. "And why this tree anyway?! What could this school possibly be doing to-" There was a loud rustle from the tree's leaves as a gruesome figure leaped from out of it, landing aside from it, spreading out its wings and letting out a terrifying roar. Just its appearance sent most of the crowd running, while others stuck around until its mighty call. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were the only ones remaining.

The demon looked around the chaos, finally setting its eyes on Danny. In a spine tingling voice, it said to Danny, "Come!" It then leaped into the air to take flight in a random direction. Tucker, however, knew exactly where he was going.

"It's heading toward the mall!" Tucker said. "That thing's gonna hurt a LOT of people, if not worse."

"Then it looks like I'll have to go over there and take it out!" Danny said, with a new bout of confidence.

"That's the Danny I remember!" Sam said, pleased.

"And if Dante happens to get in my way," Danny continued, "I'll make him wish he never came here!"

"Wait. Dante?" Sam asked, noting the first time Danny mentioned that name in front of her. "The owner of Devil May Cry? _That_ Dante? _He's_ that demon hunter going after you? "

"You know, Sam," Tucker said, "if I had a nickel for every time I said what I'm about to say, I'd have about as much money as you do. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Danny," Sam continued, "if I'd have known that this demon hunter going after you was Dante, I would've convinced you to lay low last night. This guy _really_ good! It's just too dangerous!"

"Someone has to stop that thing!" Danny said to Sam. "And if Dante just happens to be there, then tough cookies. Besides, I've been through worse." Danny then sprung to the fallen tree and dove into the leaves. In a bright flash, Danny flew out as Danny Phantom. Danny flew towards the mall immedeatly after, trying to make up for lost time.

Sam watched, once again fearing this would be the last time she saw her best friend.

* * *

On another side of town, Dante was parked on his motorcycle in a gas station parking lot. He didn't appear to be doing much. If anything, it looked as if he was waiting. What for, one couldn't say, but one could guess it was a phone call when he answered his cell phone quick enough before the first ring could complete. "I had a feeling you'd call at this hour, Mr. Mayor," Dante opened.

"So you were expecting me to call?" Vlad, sure enough, said. "What gave you that thought?"

"That's for me to know and for you to shut up about," Dante answered. "So, where's the demon?"

"Well, I-" Vlad froze, then continued, "How did you know I was calling about that?"

"Well," Dante answered, "it was either that or you ran out of milk and you wanted me to pick some up. Look, just tell me where to go!"

"Fine," Vlad said, his impatience getting as bad as Dante's. "It's that whole 'attracted to large crowds' thing again. The mall is bound to be packed with teenagers."

"Am I gonna find that Phantom kid, too?" Dante asked from out of left field.

Vlad stumbled for an answer, simply questioning, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, you see," Dante began to explain, "every time I find a demon where you said there was one, I'm finding Danny Phantom fighting it. It's really making me question his motives. ...And yours, come to think of it."

"I don't care about motives!" Vlad yelled, somewhat defensive. "Just go to the mall and end that demon! And when you find Danny Phantom, end him too!"

"Don't you mean-" Dante was cut off by the snap of a cell phone shutting, followed shortly by a dial tone. Dante completed his question to no one in particular with, "'...if?'"

Figuring that he might as well do his job, Dante revved up his motorcycle to head for the mall. Before leaving, he looked back to his cell phone. He thought long and hard about what Vlad was paying him for, making it seem as if Danny Phantom was more important than the demons that brought him here to begin with. After thinking about it, Dante took Vlad's advice and rode to the mall. While on the move, however, he threw his phone into the air, quickly shooting it down with Ivory. He looked back at the scattered remains of the phone raining down on the street. His employer won't be happy about being unable to contact him, but with what he had in store, Dante didn't care too much.

* * *

Danny had just arrived at the Amity Park Mall, finding the demon's trail unfortunately cold. From where he was in the air, he couldn't find the demon, even checking behind him to avoid a pre-emptive strike like last time. Unable to spot the demon, Danny thought it best to search the area and hope it hadn't already hurt anyone. Or worse, hurt someone else in a completely different location.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw something turn away from him in the parking garage. It could've been either a demon or a curious civilian, Danny had to find out for everyone's safety.

Going through the second floor of the garage, Danny couldn't help but feel a bit of fear in his searchings. It was almost like something out of a horror movie. An empty parking garage, a dim setting (thanks to a mostly cloudy afternoon), the faint sound of just the air, and to top it all off, Danny had a massive gut feeling someone was watching him.

Slowly looking through the lot of cars for any sign of movement, Danny suddenly stopped. He could swear he heard a deep breathing that wasn't his own in the area. Danny slowly looked around him, unable to see where the near-growling was coming from. Then, quickly using his superhero intuition (and his knowledge from watching way too many cartoons), Danny fired a ghost ray to the roof above him. He was glad to know he did in fact hit a demon above him, not cause property damage. The demon fell stunned to the floor, with Danny preparing another shot. When the demon rose to a knee, Danny took that shot, sending the demon into a parked mini-van, setting off its alarm.

The demon quickly came to, taking note of the vehicle behind it and tearing off it's trunk door. The demon threw the trunk door at Danny, who leaped into the air to avoid it, sending it into a station wagon which became brutally sliced from the impact. The destruction distracted Danny long enough for the demon to grab onto him, putting Danny in a nelson hold and throwing him into the destroyed station wagon. Danny reacted quickly by going into an intangible state, moving into the car. Before the demon knew what just happened, Danny came storming out of the car, delivering a double-fisted punch into the demon's chest.

Back outside, a black and red motorcycle was entering the mall area. Dante surveyed the area, noting the teenage rush hadn't quite begun yet. One thing he noticed immediately was the wailing of a car alarm emitting from the parking garage. As if he wasn't prepared enough to head there already, a bright green flash emerged from the garage. "There we go!" Dante exclaimed, going full throttle into the garage. Upon entering, Dante pulled out his sword and let it drag behind him, causing sparks to fly. It may not have been necessary, but he liked style.

Upon making the turn after going up the second floor, Dante could see the brawl between Danny Phantom and a demon. Dante, seeing how the other two were too busy killing each other to notice the roar of a motorcycle engine, lifted his sword and pointed the blade forward.

Danny, now with the demon in a grapple, was fighting to gain ground on it. Just as he felt he was getting the upper hand, the demon was quickly wooshed away from him. Danny looked that direction to, sure enough, see Dante on his motorcycle, dragging the demon across the asphalt while it was impaled on his sword.

Dante then screeched and skidded to a stop, making the demon cry loudly as the bike turned direction toward Danny. The demon hunter turned his bike's engine off, set up the kick stand, and got off the bike, stomping the demon's face to the floor and retrieving his sword while doing so. He looked to the ghost boy, who looked ready to put up a fight. "You know," Dante began. Before he could say anything else, he heard the demon moaning. Sighing irritatedly, Dante turned around, drew Ivory, and shot the demon in the head, silencing it for good.

"As I was saying," Dante said, withdrawing his gun and making his way towards Danny, "it's kind of a shame we always have to meet like this. You're fighting the demon, I'm always coming in for the kill. You know, I've never fought one of these guys fresh or face-to-face. If I weren't hired to kill you, I'd say you'd make a good addition to the Devil May Cry family." Danny quickly fired a ghost ray at Dante, which he leaned back to avoid. He then said, "Take it easy, kid! I'm not here to fight."

"Prove it!" Danny demanded.

Dante smirked, knowing the ghost kid's trust wasn't going to be that easy to get. He did the only thing he could think of to earn Danny's trust by dropping his sword, which he still had in his hand.

Danny stared him down and continued, "And the guns!"

Dante gave an aggravated sigh, pulling out his pistols and placing them on the floor in front of him. He walked over them, continuing towards Danny and called out, "Happy?"

Danny let his guard down enough to hear Dante out. "What do you want?" Danny asked.

"Well," Dante began to explain, now face to face with Danny, "I took what you said at the theater to mind. Whenever Masters gets me a demon lead, not only is he right, but there you are. And since three's the magic number, I'm _really_ not liking what's going on. Tell me what you think is going on."

Danny hesitated before answering, expecting Dante to do something. After he was sure Dante was serious about making peace, he answered, "Vlad's somehow got control of a demon army who are associated with some guy named Grusunder. Knowing him, he probably wants to use their power to rule."

"Rule what?" Dante asked.

"I dunno, the state, the country, the world," Danny said, "he never specifies, but you should always bet on the last one."

"Can't say I know who Grusunder is," Dante said, rubbing his chin, "but I know a lot of head officials who wanted world domination. Masters is just up their alley. So, what do you say to a little partnership for the time being?" Dante extended his hand to Danny, adding, "You know, raid his home and trash the place if we have the time?"

Danny was still uncertain about Dante's words, but shook anyway, adding, "Consider it a shaky alliance."

Dante smirked and said, "My favorite kind."

* * *

That's the chapter. Three more to go. I so want to end this before 2009 so I don't look like a _total_ slacker.


	11. Mayoral Smackdown

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

* * *

Personal Demons

* * *

Chapter 11: Mayoral Smackdown

* * *

In the early evening at the mayoral mansion, Vlad was impatiently pacing around the front room with a phone in hand. He had been trying to get in contact with him for the last few minutes, moving from room to room in hopes of a better signal. He had Grusunder send a demon out to fetch Danny earlier. By now, Danny should be chasing after it to the warehouses at the docks, and the setup would be complete if only Dante would pick up.

"Why is he not answering?!" Vlad growled. Just then, there was a knock on the door. Vlad was irritated to have company at this time, but was thankful for being in the room closest to the front door. He opened the door to find the person he had been calling behind it. "Dante!" Vlad said, surprised. "I've been trying to call you! Why haven't you picked up?"

Dante quickly quipped, "Oh, I dropped it and it broke." He then entered the mansion to continue, "Anyway, Vlad, I have such great news, I have to tell it to you in person."

"Oh, did you finally get rid of that pest of child, Danny Phantom?" Vlad said, first sounding pleased, then detesting as he described the name.

"Even better," Dante said, just a hint of excitement in his normally cool and calm voice. "I found out who's in charge of all those demons! And you wanna know something better?" Dante then quickly drew out one of his guns and pointed it at Vlad. Vlad looked nervous as Dante said, "I have a pistol pointed to his forehead."

Vlad quickly regained his composure, asking Dante, "So, I suppose that brat told you everything? About me sending demons after him and leading you to the both of them solely for the purpose of eliminating the ghost child so I could rule much more easily?"

Dante paused, then said, "Well, to be honest, he only _suspected_ all that. And I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical, but you just blabbing it out to me kinda confirms it."

Vlad realized this mistake and exclaimed, "Oh, cinna-biscuits!" In a somewhat defeated tone, Vlad said, "Alright, Dante, you figured me out. Now the only question is..." There were suddenly duplicates of Vlad surrounding Dante. Dante tried to get over his new found confusion as the ten Vlad clones all said at once, "Which me do you want to shoot first?"

Dante kept a cool head and replied, "That's a neat trick."

"And that's not all I can do," the Vlad duplicates said, a black ring forming around each of them. The ring split into two to envelop Vlad, changing his appearance. His black suit became a startling white, his chest became more pronounced, his skin became a ghastly pale, his eyes a frightening red, and his previously slicked back gray hair turned black and pulled itself up, resembling somewhat of a pinser. The transformation complete, Vlad and his duplicates all fired ecto-blasts at Dante, who was too confused to react in time. The surprise all-around blast fell Dante to his knees.

"Yes, Dante, on your knees!" the Vlads taunted. "You'll be doing plenty of that under the rule of Vlad Plasmius!"

Dante got up to one knee and smirked, "You know, your name may be Vlad." Dante then quickly lunged out at the Vlad in front of him, at the same time unleashing his sword. He thrusted his blade in the Vlad, who gave out a gasping cry. Quickly after, he swung his sword around him, slashing at the two Vlads that surrounded the first, all like a hot knife through butter. As all three disappeared, Dante looked back at the remaining seven Vlads and continued, "But I'll be doing the impaling!"

Dante dashed at the duplicates, slashing at the ones not fast enough to fly out of reach. With two more of their numbers gone, the remaining duplicates fired ecto blasts at Dante, who quickly deflected the shots with his sword. Still deflecting shots, Dante ran to the nearest wall and literally ran up it. Reaching an impossible point for a normal human being, he lept off the wall before gravity realized it had a job to do. As Dante flew at the duplicates, his sword ready to thrust, the Vlads got wise and moved out of his way. Having anticipated this Dante threw his sword down to the floor, twisted his body around, drew his pistols, and shot down two more Vlad clones. Dante landed with a handspring back to his feet, pointing his guns at the Vlads and calling, "Who's next?"

The three remaining Vlads showed equal amounts of frustration on their faces. All three descended to the floor, but only one landed firmly atop it as the other two phased below it. With only one Vlad to worry about this time, Dante withdrew his guns and said, "Just you? Okay then!" Dante ran full steam ahead at Vlad, grabbing his sword in front of him and ready to chop the mayor in two.

Seeing Dante's attack coming, Vlad used ecto-energy to make a shield on his arm and threw it up against what would've been a devastating slice. Dante continued his hack-and-slash strategy, ducking away from whatever ghost rays Vlad could throw in between parries. When Vlad found himself backed against a wall, his shield keeping Dante's blade from cutting him open, he could only compliment, "You're good."

"Why, thank you," Dante responded. He was suddenly startled from a crash from the floor beneath him. Dante looked beneath beneath him to find a clawed hand come from the floor. That distraction for a moment was all Vlad needed to blast Dante away from him to gain some ground. With Dante several feet back on his rear, he was able to get a better look at what shocked him as it was emerging from the floor. As a demon, much like the ones Dante had faced earlier, made its way to the floor, two more joined it, each causing their own bit of property damage. Joining the demons was one of the previous Vlad clones, holding a mirror that Dante surely recognized.

"Fortunately for me," Vlad said, "I have back-up."

As Dante got up and looked at his opponents, he noticed the mirror a Vlad was holding began to cloud black, followed by a glowing red eye appearing in it.

"Finally," the mirror said, "the one of Sparda's blood. After two thousand years, I will finally be free, and this dimension will be mine! Now, my minions, bring me the son of Sparda!"

Almost as soon as Grusunder made his order, a green beam struck one of his demon minions. While the demons and Vlad gathered themselves from the surprise attack, Dante turned back to find its source. Indeed, Danny Phantom had arrived to even the odds.

"Took you long enough," Dante said, glad to see Danny for a reason outside of profit.

"Well, that demon wasn't gonna phase itself into a pier post," Danny said.

"Get them both!" Grusunder demanded, leaving two demons to charge at Dante and one to fly at Danny.

Danny's fought his demon by dodging by mostly swooping out of the way of its vicious slashes. At one slash, Danny was able to grab the demon's wrist and get it in a hammerlock. He then flew full steam ahead toward a nearby wall, stunning the demon from the impact. Danny then used his freezing abilities through his hands, trapping the demon against the wall in a thick sheet of ice. He flew back to throw some ghost rays at the demon's head. All that did, however, was make it mad, causing it to break free from it's icy shell and swoop back at Danny. Thus the fight went back to square one.

With two demons, Dante had it a bit rougher. The two surrounded him, keeping Dante on the defensive and making it somewhat difficult to dish out an offensive strike. Keeping his rhythm as smooth as possible, he deflected one demon's slash and quickly gave it a boot to the gut. Moving quickly, he then ran his blade flat into the second demon. As the demon cried out in pain, Dante felt a sharp pain in at his back. Looking back, he saw the demon he had booted recovered faster than he had hoped and stabbed him with its claws, its tips sticking out of his gut. Dante made nothing of it and quickly drew one of his guns and shot up from behind him, blowing the demon's head off. While still holding on to his sword, Dante swung it out of the second demon. It cried out from its nasty flesh wound, but Dante put it out of its misery by swinging back at it, leaving the demon in two. With those two out of the way, it was time for him to help out Danny, who was still fighting his demon.

While the two Vlads watched the battle ensue, the Vlad holding the mirror noted on of the slained demons on his floor. Its claw was covered with Dante's blood. Taking advantage of the distracted pair, the Vlad with the mirror snuck towards the demon's remains.

As Danny was fending his demon off, Dante looked on from the ground, steadily aiming his gun at the demon. At the right time, he fired a bullet, hitting the demon and stopping its pursuit at Danny. Dante then proceeded to making swiss cheese out of the demon, pulling out his second gun a firing both at rapid pace until the demon fell to the floor.

Danny looked down at the carnage and then looked at Dante, saying, "I could've taken him out, you know."

"Please," Dante chuckled, "I took out two faster than you could've taken out one. You were just giving it a workout."

"I'd hate to interrupt," Vlad called out, getting the two to look his direction. They saw one of the two Vlads in the room smearing a demon's lifeless, bloodstained hand on Grusunder's mirror and continued, "But I thought now would be a good time to bring in a new era." The mirror suddenly began to emit an eerie red glow as the blood, which only seemed like a faint coat, began to envelop the mirror.

Before anything else could happen, Dante fired shots at the mirror, the bullets deflecting of its surface. Seeing no alternative, he shot the the Vlad holding the mirror, causing it disappear and let the mirror smack the floor. The formerly reflective side facing up and now with Dante's blood spread across it, a red light sprang from it.

"Well, you know," Danny said, trying to look on the bright side of this unknown menace, "that's not a big mirror. Maybe he'll be a little guy."

Inside the red light, Danny's forecast appeared to be true, as a figure no bigger than a breadbox appeared. The image appeared faded, as if it were a hologram. But that sigh of relief soon ended as the image began to grow. By the time it was Vlad's size, the figure's features were more distinguishable. It looked similar to the demons Danny and Dante were fighting all this time, with massive wings and orange knife-like claws, but only differentiated in its pale white skin, protruding fangs, horns coming from every direction on its face, a long and ragged mane of black hair, and bicolored eyes; one pitch black, one deep red. After the image got a little bigger, the demon known as Grusunder finally took a solid form and continued to grow. Danny was too stunned to do anything, while Dante just kept his eyes on both the demon and the mayor, trying to anticipate their next moves. Finally, Grusunder was to big for the house his was contained in, breaking through the roof and destroying a large chunk of the mayoral mansion.

Grusunder had finally grown to the size of a three story building and let out a thunderous roar, loud enough to shake the whole town. Panting heavily, he immediately drove his claws into the ground. Slowly pulling them apart, he made a massive hole of what was actually a newly-created gateway to another dimension. Grusunder then fell to his knees and crawled, or perhaps more accurately fell, into the portal.

The three left at the scene each had their own reaction to what had happened. Danny was stunned at what had just occurred. Vlad was stunned at what had just happened to his house. Dante, being used to this whole demon overlord thing, walked over to the hole that was just made and looked down into it. There, he saw a cavernous, dimly lit lair of blood red rocks, some of which were dripping that very substance from various stalactites.

"Is that it?!" Dante called down to the demon below. "No vengeful gloating or anything?! That's kinda anticlimactic, don't ya think?!"

"Oh, it's climactic, alright," Vlad said. "Consider this temporary ceasefire as your last moments as a free man!"

Dante, looking to shut Vlad up, drew back one of his guns and pointed it at Vlad. Danny, having just recovered from the shock of what had occurred, set himself up behind Vlad, ready to blast him into next week.

"Oh no, I'm surrounded," Vlad said in a tone of mock worry. Going back to his serious tone, he continued, "You are aware of how fast I can outnumber you, right?"

Dante and Danny continued to stare down Vlad. It was Dante who broke the ice when he looked over to Danny and said, "He has a point, there."

"Well, glad you see it my way," Vlad said, just about to walk away.

"Ha-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta," Dante said, drawing his other gun and stopping Vlad dead in his tracks. "I didn't say you could leave. I think you should do a little explaining about why you're helping out with this catastrophe."

"Very well," Vlad said, "I believe a monologue is in place.

"In my free time, I like to clean out auction houses. A while back in Wisconsin, I had won a vicious bidding war for that very mirror that held Grusunder. An hour or so later, that person I was waging war against for the mirror met up with me and demanded I give him the mirror, but I told him I was already sending it to storage. He was outraged and revealed himself as one the very demons you were being occupied with. I put up a decent fight against the beast, but soon the others revealed themselves and joined the fray. One of them let the word out that their all-powerful master was contained in that mirror, so I thought to myself that I could manipulate this in my favor.

"They explained that Grusunder had the power to single-handedly rule this dimension, so I told them I would help bring him out, but for a price. After we brought Grusunder to consciousness, I made a deal with Grusunder that when I freed him, he can have the rest of this dimension while he gave me this whole planet! With an entire army of demons at my hand and the whole world at my feet, I can finally destroy that fat oaf Jack Fenton, and make Maddie my queen!"

After hearing the rather lengthy story, Dante was clearly losing a war with holding in his laughter. It eventually came out at full force as Dante, hunched over from his aching sides, added, "Dude, you are one _seriously_ crazed up fruit loop!"

"You know, that's funny," Danny added, "I said the exact same thing to him."

"I AM NOT A FRUIT LOOP!" Vlad exploded, exhausted of hearing the insult.

"I'm sorry," Dante said, shaking his head in continued disbelief, "but wanting the world just for one person? You _really_ need, like, a cat or something."

"Hey, I also said _that_ to him," Danny pointed out.

"Oh, man, you are too good for these bad boys," Dante said, withdrawing his guns. He then reached into his coat and pulled out a much different weapon, a handgun with a tube-like shaft, pointed it at Vlad, and continued, "But _this_... Oh-ho, you do not wanna know what this'll do to you."

"Oh, a brand new weapon," Vlad said, uninterested. "I can't possibly imagine what it'll do to me."

Suddenly, before Dante could even plan on reacting, something sprang up and grabbed the weapon from his hand. He looked up to see one remaining Vlad clone above him with the gun in hand. "Oh, right, there were ten of them," Dante dryly recalled.

The armed Vlad flew beside his double, merging with him to have one whole Plasmius, still armed with the new weapon. "Let's see what this weapon _can_ do to me," Vlad said to Dante. He quickly turned around to Danny, pointing the gun at him and shouting, "By trying it on young Daniel first!"

Vlad's malicious grin was the last thing Danny saw as he cowered behind his arms and looked away from what was to come. Then... nothing. Danny heard Vlad wailing and struggling before he looked at the scene. There, he saw Vlad trapped in a net, unable to find a way out.

"Grr, what is this?!" Vlad shouted as his rivals walked up to him. "Why can't I phase out of this?!"

"That net you're in?" Dante pointed out. "It's made of a special material ghosts can't get out of. Can't wait to tell Jack that the net works, though he should still fix that whole backfire kink."

"You were saving that gun for just that occasion?" Danny had to know.

"Actually, I never planned on using it," Dante answered. "But it came in handy when the time came." He looked back at Vlad and said, "You gotta admit, Masters. She chose the smarter one." As Vlad's rage continued to grow, Dante looked back to Danny and said, "Come on, Phantom. Let's see what Grusunder's up to."

As the two made their way to the freshly opened portal, Vlad called out, "When I get out of this net, I swear I'll-"

"Can't hear you!" Danny called back as Dante lept into the portal. "Trying to storm a dimension and save another!" Danny soon followed suit and dived in after him.

Vlad, alone once again, could only shout in to the air, "Oh, cheddar wheels!"

* * *

Oh, I hope this was worth the wait.


	12. Gateway to Destruction

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

* * *

Personal Demons

* * *

Chapter 12: Gateway to Destruction

* * *

Danny and Dante had to have gone some hundred feet into the cavernous new dimension. Dante lept carefully from whatever cliff or ledge he could find in the dimly lit caverns of Grusunder's lair. Danny, having the ability to fly, simply lowers himself down while keeping an eye on Dante, making sure not to lose him in the seemingly bottomless pit.

Throughout their trek, Danny couldn't help but feel uneasy looking around this foreign place. The entire dimension seemed like an open wound with the deep red colored rocks and the red fluid dripping from them. "It's like this place is bleeding," Danny commented, hoping to get some conversation going in the deafening silence.

"Wouldn't surprise me if that were true," Dante responded. "It was my blood, or rather my father's blood, that set him free again. Blood's probably his spiel or something." Still looking down, Dante noticed, "Hey, I think I see something."

Dante lept off the ledge he was on to a wide cliff to further confirm his sighting. He then looked up at Danny and his finger in front of his puckered lips, the universal sign for "be quiet." He then pointed over to what he had seen, prompting Danny to lower himself down to that level.

There, the two found who there were looking for. Grusunder was sitting on a throne made from whatever the rest of the dimension was made of across a gap. Something seemed off, though. He didn't move or anything.

"Is he asleep?" Danny had to know.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Dante whispered, so not to wake the sleeping giant. "That's the first time he's used his power in a long time. Probably wore him out."

"So he's regaining his power?" Danny guessed.

"That's how it appears," Dante confirmed. He then drew his guns and, pointing them at Grusunder, called, "Time for some wakey-uppy!" Dante fired at rapid pace, leaving Danny to worry in his unpreparedness in battling Grusunder.

The shots went into Grusunder's chest, effectively awakening him. He grabbed his chest and grunted loudly, more angered for being awakened than in pain.

"The son of Sparda has come to die at my hand, I see," Grusunder said.

"You know," Dante called out, "I'm a little tired of people knowing me for what my dad did. I'd really like to get known for what _I_ did one of these days."

Grusunder rose from his throne, stating, "I do not need to be at full power to destroy you both." He then decided to sit back down again, saying, "But I think I'll let my minions see to you, first."

"Typical evil overlord response," Danny quipped.

Dante snickered and complicated, "Nice."

Grusunder didn't care what his opponents thought of him and drove his claws into the ground beneath him. The claws stuck firmly into the ground, he bent his wrists back, breaking the nails at the cuticle. Further testing the strength of Danny's stomach, Grusunder grew new claws almost immediately, while the claws he left on the ground began to morph. They started cracking and splitting, and eventually moving these newly formed limbs from the splits. Just like that, the claws became the very demons that Danny and Dante had been fighting.

As soon as the four newly created demons let out a screech of life, Dante shouted, "Not on my watch!" and lept across the gap between him and the demons. In one fell swoop, Dante had slain half of them, chopping each in half in one horizontal slice. Looking down at the mess he had made, he said to himself, "Huh. This is too easy." Dante's glory was short-lived when Grusunder swatted him back across the gap, sending him speeding past Danny and into a wall behind him.

"Get them!" Grusunder ordered his remaining minions. "And leave their entrails to rot on my throne!"

The demons opened their wings and flew at the two looking to stop their master. Danny flew up and fired some ghost rays at a few demons to get their attention. It worked, as two of the four demons made their way towards him.

As Dante was recovering, he noticed a pair of demons closing in on him. Just when he started to reach for his guns, the demons shoved their claws through his forearms and the wall behind him, pinned like a displayed insect. With their target in place, the two demons synchronized lunges at Dante's chest. Dante countered by lifting his feet up and kicking the incoming claws out of his way, quickly kicking the demon on his right in the face right after. The demon was forced back, freeing one of Dante's arms, enough for him to grab his gun and blow the face of the demon on his left off. Now able to free his other arm, he pulled out his other gun and opened fire at the remaining demon.

As that was happening, Danny tried his best to keep his distance from his pair of demons, firing ghost rays at his attackers. Danny was so intense at keeping a certain demon at bay, he didn't notice that the other one had flown around him. That demon had tackled him from behind, slamming him into the stony wall in front of him. Before the demon could deliver a killing strike, Danny just slipped out of its grip, sticking its claws into the wall. Danny reacted quickly and grabbed the demon's stuck arm and froze it into the wall. Having not forgotten about his other demon, Danny spun around and fired some ghost rays at it. When it was backed into position, Danny fired two freezing beams at once at the demon's wings. Its wings rendered useless from being stuck in ice, the demon plummeted into the seemingly bottomless pit below.

Danny looked around to see Grusunder was just about to create more demons. Thinking as fast as he could, he noticed Dante was about to finish off the demon he had stuck to the wall a short time ago. Danny flew as fast as he could and grabbed Dante just before he could fire, phasing through the cliffs below.

Several levels below, Dante had to ask, "What was the deal there?"

"Don't act like you don't know," Danny said, keeping his voice down in case Grusunder was able to eavesdrop. "Sooner or later, those demons are gonna overpower us and our dimension is doomed! We have to strategize on this."

"Well, if we're talking strategy," Dante said, "you noticed how those demons were easy pickin' before Grusunder told them to go get us? That's something we gotta use to our advantage."

"Alright, but how?" Danny wondered. "We can't just take out the demons as soon as Grusunder makes them." Just then it came to him. "His eye!"

"What, the big red one?" Dante said. "Why that?"

"When Grusunder was in that mirror," Danny recalled, "his eye was all that showed. Maybe _that's_ what the demons respond to."

"So we take out the eye," Dante continued for Danny, "the demons will be sitting ducks and Grusunder doesn't have any back-up."

"Hopefully," Danny answered. "Otherwise, it'll all before nothing, and our fate is that much closer."

"Okay," Dante said, devising a plan. "I'll take out the big cheese's eye, you watch my back and take out any small fry if they get to close."

"Sounds like a plan," Danny approved, as they phased back up to the level Grusunder was waiting upon.

When they returned to said level, they discovered that Grusunder took the time to create twenty-some-odd demons around him. The sight disheartened Danny, but Dante simply smiled and said, "Now things got a lot more interesting." He then let himself out of Danny's grip, drew his sword, and lept towards Grusunder's throne.

"Attack!" Grusunder demanded, sending his army of demons at the two, primarily at Dante.

Dante hacked and slashed at any demons flying his direction, while Danny pulled his own weight and fired ghost rays at any demons that Dante couldn't get to. After Dante landed on Grusunder's side of the pit, he made a leap at Grusunder's leg. The demon lord attempted to swat Dante, but the demon hunter lept upward and pointed his sword upward, stabbing Grusunder's massive palm. In pain, Grusunder swatted Dante away, sending him and his sword to a wall. Unlike last time, Dante saw the wall coming and turned his body to have his feet point at the wall. At impact, Dante bounced himself off the wall, ricocheting higher up on Grusunder's body, but not before slashing a few demons in his way. Dante landed on Grusunder's shoulder, making a mad dash for his face. Dante pulled out one on his guns to fire at any demons coming at him, save for one specific demon. At the end of the line, Dante lept off Grusunder's shoulder at an angle. Seeing that one demon he had special plans for, he bent his legs and landed feet first on the demon, then bounced back at Grusunder, taking out the first demon with one bullet while doing so. Dante then pointed his sword where he wanted it to go and hit his target dead on. Grusunder screamed in agony as Dante stuck his blade into Grusunder's red eye. Dante then twisted his blade and lept off of the demon lord, taking his giant eyeball with him.

When Dante touched back down to the ground, he looked at around for Danny, who was struggling to fend off several demons (he was wondering why his back up got progressively lighter). Dante pointed his sword, now with Grusunder's eye ornamented onto it, at the demons and called out, "Hold!" The demons put their attention at where the call came from, and just like that, the demons stopped chasing after Danny, hovering in place awaiting their next order. "Neat," Dante acknowledged.

Grusunder, grunting in angered pain, called out, "My minions, retrieve my eye! Kill them!"

The demons didn't do a thing. Danny was stunned to see his hypothesis was apparently right, but Dante smiled at the scene and called, "Go get him, boys!" The demons immediately flew at Grusunder, attacking their now former master as he howled in agony.

Meanwhile, Danny flew beside Dante and said, "You're a real lifesaver, man."

"Yeah, I get that..." Dante paused, recalling, "well, honestly, never."

Danny watched the scene that was taking place before him, then he finally noticed the sickening sight of Grusunder's eye on Dante's sword. Holding his stomach, Danny said, "Um, Dante?"

"Yeah?" Dante responded.

"When you said you were gonna take out his eye," Danny said, "I didn't expect you to actually _take out_ his eye."

"Well, what did you expect me to do?" Dante asked.

Danny thought, "I dunno, blind him or something?"

"I could've done that," Dante recalled, "but he'd still have the eye."

"Of course he would've," Danny said, still a bit sickened.

Grusunder, on the other hand, managed to get rid of the demons around him. After crushing the last one, he shouted at the two, "Give me my eye back, you pests!"

Dante said, "You want it? Well, go get it!" He then tossed his sword up and fired both of his guns at the eye. Danny followed suit as he fired a ghost ray at it. Before Grusunder could even reach for the sword, the eye exploded, sending various bloody bits all over the pit.

The sword fell back into Dante's hand, as Danny taunted, "Too slow!"

Grusunder let out a peeved growl and called out, "When I destroy you, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Dante interrupted. He then reminded Grusunder, "Are you gonna summon more demons that'll just sit there, now that the thing they pay attention to is gone? You can't exactly take over our dimension if you don't have an army like that."

"Perhaps," Grusunder agreed. "But I can destroy your precious city!" He rose from his throne and, before taking off, said, "I'm sure Vlad Masters will understand." Grusunder jumped high into the air, flying towards the gateway to Amity Park.

Danny, his hero instincts kicking in, grabbed Dante and skyrocketed to Grusunder, desperately trying to catch up to him.

As this was happening, Dante looked to Danny and asked, "Hey kid! Can you charge that ecto-blast stuff into things?"

"Yeah," Danny said, keeping his eye on Grusunder.

"Pump me up!" Dante said. Before he knew it, Dante felt himself being filled with a strange energy. He drew out one of his guns and told Danny, "Get as close to him as you can!"

Danny kept flying upwards at Grusunder, determined to stop him. Before he knew it, he could see the moonlight from his dimension, meaning they were closing in. Danny was below Grusunder's waist when he started slowing down, going back to his knees.

"Why are we slowing down?" Dante had to know.

Danny would have said it was because he was charging energy into Dante and is effectively weakening him, but since he wanted Grusunder stopped now, he instead said, "Shoot him now!"

Dante took steady aim, and when he was pointing just where he wanted to shoot, called out, "Jackpot!"

As soon as Dante pulled the trigger, rather than a magic bullet, a concentrated green beam came out of Dante's gun. The beam immediately caught up with Grusunder, its angle first driving into his gut and exiting out of the back of his head. Grusunder didn't scream. Instead, his ascension decreased speed until he stopped all together and fell into his own bottomless pit.

Danny and Dante didn't celebrate their victory just yet, for as soon as Grusunder was stopped, Dante noticed, "The gateway's closing! We have to hurry!"

Danny flew up as fast as he possibly could, trying to catch up with the closing gateway. The gate way was only about the size of a manhole cover when the two came bursting out of it. Danny dropped Dante after the gateway sealed itself shut. Dante landed on his feet, withdrawing his weapons as he watched Danny float back down to earth.

"I think I'm starting to get used to this teamwork thing," Dante said to Danny. "We should do that more often."

"You keep the demons to yourself," Danny panted. "I'll take ghosts any day."

"You do that," Dante said. Dante then hinted, "Hey, kid, shouldn't you be doing _other things_ like, I dunno, scouting the the city and what-not?"

"Huh?" Danny asked, wondering why the strange question. He then realized, "Oh, right. I should be off. Hero duties and such." With that, Danny took off to scout the city. At least that's what he wanted Dante to think, as he was really returning home.

Dante looked up to the sky until the ghost boy was out of sight, saying to himself, "Kids these days."

"What happened down there?!" a voice called out. Dante turned around to see Vlad Plasmius still trapped inside the Fenton net. "You didn't destroy Grusunder, did you?"

"Wow, you're still in there?" Dante noticed. He walked over to Vlad, continuing, "I totally forgot about you, what with the whole risking-my-life-for-umpteenth-time-to-protect-the-world thing I got going."

"Well, Dante," Vlad said, "if you're done doing that, how would you like to set me free from this net?"

"I could do that," Dante said. "Or I could tell the city that their mayor is a ghost who wants to take over the world just because he couldn't even get a date with his high school crush."

"Yes, you could do that," Vlad said, returning to his human form of Vlad Masters. "But, if you do do that, I'll just tell the city that that piece of news came from a mad vagabond who tried killed me. It's the word of a high political figure against a total stranger, Dante! Who do you think they're going to believe?"

"You say that like there's a difference," Dante quipped. "Alright, I'll let you go and keep quiet. But at a price."

"A price?" Vlad asked, a little nervous.

"You hired me to take out the demons in this city," Dante reminded. "I did just that, and I expect to be paid."

"And if I refuse?" Vlad asked.

Dante pointed a gun at Vlad and said, "You ask that like there are other possibilities."

Vlad stared down the barrel and cursed, "Oh, apple sauce!"

* * *

There's your climax. Your denouement soon to follow.


	13. GoodBye to Dante

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Devil May Cry. Characters from either series' are owned by either Nickelodeon or Capcom. Some characters are my own.

* * *

Personal Demons

* * *

Chapter 13: Good-Bye to Dante

* * *

After Dante received his check from Vlad, he made one last visit to the Fenton household to offer his good-byes and thanks.

"Are you sure you can't stay a little longer?" Jack asked Dante, Maddie by his side. "I got some new inventions to try out."

"As much as I'd like to stay and try all your new toys out," Dante said, "I probably have other clients on my answering machine back at the shop. By the way, Jack, that net that ghosts couldn't get out of? Ghosts really can't get out of it. Nice work."

"It really works?" Jack said, rather happy. "I better make more of that stuff!" He rushed down to the lab to do just that.

After Jack's mad dash for mass production, the youngest Fenton, Danny, came down the stairs, asking, "Is something going on?"

"Well," Maddie began to explain, "Dante's about to leave us. Now, Danny, I know you've been avoiding him for one reason or another..."

"He's going?" Danny asked, apparently surprised. "And I was just getting used to him being around."

Dante just smiled at the boy and said, "I'm sure you were." Dante turned back to Maddie and said, "I've done what I was hired to do. Took out those 'new ghosts,' took out their head honcho, but that Phantom kid is your problem. I think you oughta give him a chance. You'll be surprised." Dante then turned for the door and said, "Well, it's been fun. Later, Fentons."

When Dante opened the door, he noticed his exit was blocked by a girl with a folder under her arm, her body language showed she was just about to knock. As soon as she saw him, she couldn't take her violet eyes off of him. "And you are?"

"Um, Sam Manson, sir," she introduced herself, a little shaken up. "A friend of mine said you'd be here so I thought I'd give you this." Sam presented her folder to Dante, who took it and looked through it. "It's an application and resume."

"Really?" Dante said, looking through the accomplishments in her resume. He was rather surprised at what he saw. "Stopped a cyber ghost from taking over the Internet, defeated a reanimated movie monster, saved your class from ghost prison. You're _how_ old?"

"Fourteen," Sam answered.

Dante sighed and said, "Ooh, sorry, I can't hire minors. Child labor laws and everything." Sam looked glum, but Dante continued, "If what's on this is true, though, I would _love_ to hire you for Devil May Cry."

"Really?!" Sam said, her heart aflutter.

"Sure," Dante said, "just give it four years. You'll probably be a lot better than you are now."

Dante walked past an excited Sam, who couldn't stop grinning. Danny came down on the stoop with her and said, "So, you really _are_ a fan."

The rest of the Fenton family came to the stoop to see Dante off. Before Dante could rev up his motorcycle, he remembered, "Oh, almost forgot!" He reached inside his coat and pulled out a business card, saying to himself, "I knew these would come in handy someday."

He tossed the business card at the family, to which Danny caught. Danny look at the card to see the agency name, Devil May Cry, with a phone number and a picture of Dante leaning on his sword. Dante instructed, "If there's any sort of mass crisis that comes on this town and you want it taken care off, give me a call." He then looked directly at Danny and told him, "Especially you."

Danny couldn't help but be curious to what Dante meant be especially him. It then suddenly occurred to him. He called out, "Dante, wait!" and ran up to him before he could get his bike started.

"Dante," Danny said, keeping his voice down, "do you... know?"

Dante chuckled and answered with a smile, "Do I know what?" He then revved his engine and took off before Danny could go into any specifics.

"There goes one awesome guy," Jack said, looking on as Dante disappeared from view. At that, the Fenton family went back inside, except for Danny, who continued to look on.

Sam then came up to Danny and said, "So, did you and Dante work out any differences?"

Danny answered, "Yeah, we did. But I don't think it's something I want to revisit anytime soon."

* * *

Well, there it is. After over a year, this fiction is finally done. Now I can focus on the next chapter of my saga, "Cruise Crisis." The title's totally lame, but I know there is at least one person who is anxiously awaiting that very fiction piece. I for one, have been really antsy to write it. Anyway, peace out.


End file.
